No Chance for Fate
by Tribun
Summary: Ranma's fate is written in stone. Right? Right...? Actually not. And in the wake of a guardian finally freeing herself from her chains, fate loses its hold on Ranma.
1. Prologue

Since you will see who dominates the prologue, you can guess what kind of crossover this will be. However, I won't fall into the common traps. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

Sorry that there is only very little Ranma in the prologue, but I need to set up things. Also after the prologue there won't be Sailor Moon related stuff for some time.

**Note that this is the updated chapter, it is significantly better from the original one, as my writing skills have improved a lot over the years.**

_No Chance for Fate_

* * *

**Prologue**

She felt sick.

Actually she felt like thowing up all her innards, but even that was denied to her in this place of eternal time, where all her body functions were frozen. Sailor Pluto let out a cynical laugh when remembering this. Here at the Gates of Time, there were no bodily needs. She didn't need to eat or drink -she knew by now that her entire digestive tract was frozen in a time void- didn't need to sleep or even to rest. She snorted when remembering that essentially it made her just staying there in boredom, denied even mundane things like taking a leak, throwing up or... ah hell, with her body functions frozen in time like this, she couldn't even let go of a fart.

In other words it was the perfect hell, only instead of fire and brimstone, the torture was utter and mind-crumbling boredom. A fitting punishment for her.

Who'd said that being the Guardian of the most powerful time-related artifact in the universe would be an easy job? But then, this wasn't the worst thing. Much worse was what was in her head right now. Being the senshi of time had side-effects that were uncontrollable. Something like the grand temporal loop she was in for so long that it had made her wish she could slit her wrists.

Hell, she'd tried offing herself several times already and the damn loop had simply resurrected her, leaving her with the horrible memories of her own death. She'd also went insane at lest half a dozend times in the countless loops but eventually even that had proven useless and her mind by now was too numb to master this feat again.

Her memories by now were somewhat vague on numerous things, but what had happened over and over again to again and again crush her soul was pretty much clear. The loop had started with... no, that would be at the end of the story. She had memories of quite a number of times going through this, but she couldn't act on them. She wanted to, but everything was against her. What were memories worth when they got burried by the time stream to ensure the the loop would exactly repeat as last time?

It had started the same as the numerous times before.

She'd woken up with all the memories she'd had from all the previous loops at some point before the conception of the Senshi in her body of that time (she hoped that her current self didn't mind her mind melting together with hers). But at that point, she was trapped in this place. And when the time came to interact with the world again... she would be brutally forced by the powers of time itself to revert to her self from that point at the time stream, her memories supressed. The time loop was very powerful, altering her mind to ensure it's a closed circle. And then everything would happen again. The same all over again down to the last detail.

Setsuna felt like fate wanted to mock her by again and again shoving down her throat how everything would go to hell. Enternal damnation as punishment for her hubris.

_The road to Hell is paved with good intentions... _she thought bitterly.

Crystal Tokyo had been such a good idea on first sight. A government that would care for everyone, leading mankind into a new, golden age... They should have known better. The people of the world didn't want be ruled by a self-proclaimed royal pair, especially since they remembered that these so-called saivours hadn't lifted a finger to prevent the disaster called "the deep freeze" that killed many millions, despite being able to do so. That this was because they hadn't been on Earth during that time, they had left to learn more about their past, was the reason for their inactivity.

Pluto sighed. It wasn't that Serenity, Endymion or the other Senshi were evil or bad people, they really had only the best interest of the people at heart. But they simply weren't made for ruling over an entire planet, being naive and unable to see the consequences of their actions. While they'd been great defenders against the forces of darkness, they were completely unsuitable for running a government. It culuminated in the big sin.

That was, when Usagi got the bad idea after the Black Moon family, that maybe the evil in people's hearts prevented them to see that this was for their good. That was the original sin, when she used the Silver Crystal to destroy any chance for evilness in the hearts of man. Taking the choice away from them, ripping out an essential part of the very being of humanity. The results were horrible, only they didn't see it at first. They saw happy people, who didn't complain about anything, smiling 24-7 while going on as the obedient drones they'd become.

Setsuna knew it was ironical. In a way, Wiseman and the Black Moon had been right, Crystal Tokyo hadn't turned out into what had been hoped.

And with all passion and the will to survive gone from them, humanity was doomed to die out. The children became fewer with each generation, the drive to reproduce gone. When Serenity and the others had seen what had happened, when they understood the consequences of their tampering with human nature, it had been already far too late. In the end, they'd tried to commit suicide by Serenity overloading the Silver Crystal to wipe out them and the meager remnants of mankind. Ironically, they never managed to do so.

Hotaru had beaten them to it. She'd become clinically depressed and when hearing what they'd been about to do, had pointed down the Silence Glaive and brought the Silence over Earth, killing everyone left on the planet. Her last words were, that she'd put them out of their misery.

And there she was at the time loop. In a burst of pure depression at seeing the empty Earth, she had fired a Dead Scream point blank at the gate in that future, and this somehow had made her start this loop. And with every loop she kept her memories from the last times.

_And to what use? I will be forced to start all this again and again, living through it. How many millenia have I gone through this now? I don't remember... Maybe I don't want to remember... Is this the punishment for my arrogance that I thought I knew what should be best?_

She knew, it WAS the punishment for her arrogance, for all her manipulations of the timeline in order to steer things towards Crystal Tokyo. She'd been fixated on the idea of ressurrecting the Silver Millenium, even accepted that the death of billions just by sitting back and doing nothing while the asteroid would hit the planet, would be worth the sacrifice. Instead, her plans had doomed Earth to be a lifeless rock in space.

Looking into the gate, she watched Earth.

She hoped that maybe something would change, something would cause a litte difference that would disturb the loop, so that she could try to escape and break it. But she felt that she was fooling herself. There was no escape for her. Even though there were small variations in the time stream in each loop, surely it wouldn't be enough.

_Who do I try to kid? I should have... wait. What's that? _She saw a small ripple going over the surface of the picture the gate showed her right now. _Chaos energy in its purest form. It's starting to send ruptures into the time stream._

Setsuna didn't know where exactly that chaos came from, but it started to get stronger. It had to come from a person. Generally, too much chaos energy was bad, because it tended to ruin someone's life royally. Often, these people died early, most never reaching their tenth year, just because of the sheer chaos killing them. But this maybe was her chance, and she understood her single chance all too well. The disruptions in the stream affected the gate, and she could use her time staff to draw the chaos energy to the gate, the resulting chaos spike would be her key to freedom by creating a rip in the fabric that'd allow her to escape. This would break the time loop.

The sudden chance for escape had blown away her dark thoughts. She couldn't afford to blow it.

Whoever it was who emitted so much chaos, he or she should be thankful that she would drain off most of it for her own puproses, as it would make their lives much more easy. Pointing her staff to the gate, she concentrated.

* * *

_...at the same time, which is 1978..._

"Aaaaah!"

In a hospital in the Minato ward of Tokyo, a woman of barely 20 years was busy with giving birth and causing injury to her husband's hand. But despite the pain, she was happy that she was giving birth right now. A medical condition made it very difficult for her to conceive. That she nonetheless had become pregnant despite the marginal chances of this happening; she felt it was a miracle. She was only moments away from having her dream fulfilled.

The way to it had been long. Her parents didn't approve of her choice of husband. They would have liked to see her marrying a well-off salaryman, not someone like him. Her father said that he is a man of bad character, and that she didn't know what she was getting into. Her extremely traditional mother had rejected him because she doubted he could be the kind of husband who can give a family a life free of financial trouble. But she had married him anyway, the only time she went against her conservative upbringing.

For that, her parents effectively had disowned her.

She knew they were wrong, her husband was a kind man and he really cared for her. But she also knew that he was in constant danger of leaving this path. She'd heard his nightmares, where his old master, a really cruel man from what he had told her, tormented him. He himself admitted that he had to force himself not to fall into an behaviour that literally had been beaten into him. He'd warned her that all the years of abuse had left things in his head that away threatened to overwhelm him. But she had faith that he would be strong enough.

She was so excited of having a child, that her expectations literally went through the roof. If it was a girl, she would make her a real and perfect lady. If it was a boy, that he would be so manly that all girls would lay to his feet. Her upbringing and the extremely conservative circle of old woman making up her surroundings had effectively distorted her view on reality. She wasn't mad or anything like that, she was psychically healthy, but she was trained not to see a number of things. She also wasn't a bad person, shje just had no idea of how wrong these ideas were.

"Ahhhhhgghhhhhhh!" she screamed, and then relaxed, when the last push released the child, and she was greeted with baby cries.

The doctor looked up to her. "Congratulations Mrs. Saotome, it is a boy."

* * *

_...back at the gate..._

Setsuna felt it, the chaos energy spiked.

She knew, using it to rip a hole for her escape into freedom could have serious consequences. The fabric of time wasn't something to be tampered with lightly. However, considering the consequences if she did nothing at all, she was willing to accept the risk. The picture on the gate of time was swirling like a vortex with all the chaos energy that it had sucked out of whoever he or she was. Holding the Garnet Orb towards the vortex, she did the final step to rip the hole.

She didn't have to wait for long for the effect to make itself known. The gate was shuddering, while a white-glowing rift appeared in the middle of the picture. Setsuna didn't hesitate, as she only had seconds, and jumped through the rift towards her freedom.

Behind her, the rift closed and with it the gate.

Then she felt it. Time itself was straining with her breaking the loop. It was as if the universe was exploding around her, struggling to minimise the damage and return the flow of time to normal. The structure of time groaned, she felt that she was in the middle of a struggle between the forces of destruction and existence. She saw pictures, that not even the gods had seen before, possibilities, world that were and would never be. The structure of time screamed as much in pain as in relief...

Then it was over as fast as it had begun, with the universe still there, and she felt motion.

o

In the Hikawa Shrine in the Minato ward of Tokyo, a shinto priest in his very early fifties tried to concentrate on the sacred fire. He felt that something was happening. Something big. He tried to concentrate but again had to think of his daughter Risa dating this... this politician Takashi. He knew that this man would break her heart in the end, but she didn't want to hear any of it, blind in her love to him. His biggest fear was her actually marrying him, as this was a man he didn't want as a son-in-law. If only...

A transparent ripple went trough the room, distorting everything for a moment. Then it was over.

The priest opened his eyes, wondering if there was something. It had felt as if something had changed, as if things were different from what they'd been. He chalked it up to exhaustion. He only knew that tonight the flame wouldn't give him any answers. Feeling over his head, he sighed when feeling the last trace of hair on it. Soon these would be gone as well. He felt his age again. But maybe with some young girls at the shrine tomorrow, his mood would improve.

And it needed improvement since his daughter Risa had married this politician Takashi over a year ago. Right now she was pregnant with their first child, expecting soon, the only thing that made him see this marriage in a more favorable light. Still, he didn't like his daughter's husband in the slightest. He#d break her heart, he knew that for sure. And ever since his daughter had given up on being a miko and left the shrine, he had trouble with maintaining the grounds in his advanced age.

Hopefully his grandchild would be wiser than his daughter.

o

Nodoka Saotome looked at the tiny form of her son sleeping in her arms. They had named their son Ranma in the hope that one day in the future he would live up to his name. Her husband Genma looked proud at the baby, feeling that the boy would have a great future ahead, once old enough to carry on the school.

He had hoped for a son to carry on the school. An heir. And his hope was fulfilled with his wife giving birth to Ranma. He again felt the corruption at the back of his mind, that he should be cruel to make his son the best, but he surpressed it. Ever since he and his friend Soun had left their cruel master Happosai, who hopefully had died in the rockslide, he had to fight the results of all these years of abuse. He hoped it wouldn't become worse when he would start to train his son.

He also remembered his friend Soun. The man already had two daughters, with a third child on the way and expected soon. Their vow to unite the schools now could be fulfilled as well, but that was something for the future, and had to be adressed with care. After all, he'd seen where an unhappy marriage could lead to. Despite what Nodoka's parents thought, he was really a caring man, and his biggest fear was, to lose this trait one day.

"He looks so beautiful..." Nodoka said, her eyes full with love and caring.

"He is the future, No-chan," Genma said with a smile. "And I feel it, he will have a great future ahead."

While both parents looked in pride at their firstborn, another woman was sleeping in the hospital room next to them. She had given birth two days prior and was cleared to leave soon. In the basin beside her bed slept her baby daughter, her whole pride. Her husband had promised her, he would make a painting of their baby girl very soon. The sign on the basin read "Ami Mizuno".

No one saw it, but for some seconds, the sigl of Mercury glowed on the forehead of the sleeping baby-girl.

* * *

_...Tokyo, 1980..._

It was dark in Tokyo park when a glowing rift appeared. There wasn't much dignity involved when it literally spat out Sailor Pluto, who landed hard on her butt. The rift then disappeared, leaving her to the dim illumination of the park lanterns.

"Free... I'm finally free!" Setsuna gasped.

The next thing she knew was her holding her stomach while letting out a sick belch. There was even less dignity involved when she had to violently throw up, parting with her last meal from the Silver Millenium the wrong way. After spitting out the remains of her vomit, she staggered to the next park bench, collapsing on it, while thinking about what had happened.

Looking up, she saw the illuminated Tokyo Tower standing tall over the trees. To see it intact was strangly calming for her. Most of the tower had survived the deep freeze in the original timeline and had been repaired as a symbol for the re-emerge of the city, only to be destroyed by the Senshi when they'd bulldozed most of Minato to make space for the obscenity that would be the Crystal Palace.

The burning Toyko Tower collapsing into a pile of twisted metal had been a clear message to the people of old Tokyo that they weren't any longer masters of their own fate

Her internal chronometer, which came with her line of work, told her the exact date. It surprised her, because she felt the energy of all the inner Senshi, despite the fact that some of them weren't born until later that year. So she closed her eyes and felt around. He suspiction proved true. Her escape had put a severe strain on the fabric of time, changing some events. One was clearly that all the inner Senshi had been born earlier. She had no idea what else had changed, but she already knew that she shouldn't even try any preservation-of-the-timeline bullshit, as she had seen where it led to.

And when she thought about it, there was a lot that had went wrong. And in her grew determination.

She wouldn't sit back. The repeated time loops had changed her more than she had first thought. She'd paid the price for her arrogance and over all the repeated time loops, she'd become a changed woman. While originally she'd been cold and manipulative, she now was seeking for atonement for what she'd done. To prevent this horrible future from happening again.

However, there were some major uncertaincies. Things had changed, and so she couldn't trust on that everything would again play out as it did.

For example, with the flux in time as she felt it, there would be no definite Crystal Tokyo -not that she wanted this obscentity to emerge again, one time had been enough- and so no Black Moon attack. But she also didn't want to become a crutch for the girls by taking all the load off them. The Senshi needed to grow to become protectors of the world, while never elevating themselves over their fellow man. And then she decided on the course of action she would take once the Senshi would start to awaken. She would guide them on their path, as their mentor. She would only directly interfere if they were in real danger of getting seriously harmed or when it came to matters of trust.

But until then she had years for herself.

_No way I return to the gate until the Senshi have started to awake. No thanks, I don't want to get trapped again. And without the Black Moon, no one will disturb the gate anyway, _Setsuna decided, before for the first time in many years dropping her transformation to become plain Setsuna.

She looked at her court dress and grimaced. "No, this won't do." Wearing that thing would create undue attention and in the worst case would land her in a psychatric hospital.

Concentrating, she changed it into plain street clothes of that time. She had a lot of time on her hands, so she decided to get a life, and be a simple, normal woman without a crushing responsibility. Something that she'd silently wished for a long time. A quiet life with only the occassional excitement sounded very good at the moment.

There were some priorities. First create an identity, then cash, then something to eat and a place to live. And then she really felt she needed to get laid (Hey, even she was after all only a woman, so she had needs!)

Transferring her staff into her subspace pocket, she briefly wondered what had happened to the person emitting all the chaos that had enabled her to escape, while leaving the park.

Setsuna had no idea how many things had changed with her escape, and how many things would still change in the future, which wouldn't have happened otherwise. A village in China was severly hit by a change of their recent history. A reform in the Nerima ward was made to ensure better public safety in the area. And a big number of other changes happened.

On thing seemed insignificant compared to others. One year after her husband and son left for their training trip, Nodoka Saotome fell off the ladder when trying to change a lightbulb, breaking her leg in the process. And during her stay in hospital, she would meet someone who would become a close friend. And her friend was a woman with both feet firm on the ground who, after being horrified at how she thought about a lot of things, made it her task to help Nodoka to escape this prison of a distorted view on reality and totally warped ideas.

And so the life of Ranma Saotome was bound to become very different from what fate originally had decided for him...

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"The Day when everything changed"**_


	2. The Day when everything changed

You can guess the won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

So finally the first chapter. I'm sure I already have broken some unspoken rules for this kind of crossover.

**Note that this is the updated chapter, it is significantly better from the original one, as my writing skills have improved a lot over the years.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: The Day when everything changed**

"Stop your whining, boy! It's not far anymore!" Ganma snapped to his son.

"Stupid old man..." Ranma grumbled, while they walked through the outskirts of Tokyo. _Not far, my ass! I DID see the city plan, we have to go through half the city, _he silently added.

His father still hadn't told him why exactly they were returning to Tokyo; why their training trip had to end so apruptly. But on the other hand, after what had happened a little over two weeks ago, Ranma really didn't feel like travelling any longer.

He knew for years already, that his father is a liar and thief, something that had really hurt his opinion of Genma. And what respect he had once held for his martial arts powers had vanished when seeing again and again the sheer craziness and incompetence that his father displayed when trying to teach these skills. Most of it was utterly useless and the only effect was, to make Ranma tough enough to endure this madness. If not for his own skill at learning the art... No, Ranma had lost all respect for his father long ago.

The stunt at the Pools of Sorrow, that had been the last straw.

Alone the idea of being cursed to turn into a GIRL made his innards turn into knots. He tried to push away the mere thought of what it meant. He'd alway been proud of his masculinity, so this had hurt double. After the first confusion he had asked the guide if there was a pool of drowned man. The guide had said yes, but shot down the idea of using it for a cure right away by saying that it would only cause the curses to mix, making them permanent in the worst case. The idea of becoming a hemaphrodite, not eintirely man or woman, had made the prospect of being a part-time girl somewhat more acceptable.

The following stupidity on their way back to Tokyo caused by his old man had killed any doubts that Genma had lost all credit with him. So in a way he was glad that his father had decided to go to Tokyo to settle down. But he had a feeling that the old man again wanted to drop a bomb into his lap, as he had done so often before. Some stupid sheme that in the end would blow up into their faces. Another thing that had made his opinion of his father less favorable each time it had happened.

But even before this disaster at the pools, he had become unrestful.

Martial arts was his life, and he really enjoyed it, feeling the intense need to become the best there is. And he felt proud at what he had accomplished. But for some time now, he felt a growing emptiness he couldn't really describe. The art wasn't fulfilling him anymore. The art was still a very important thing to him, and propably would always be, but he started to wonder if there was more to life than just that. It felt like something was missing from his life, but he didn't know, what. He only knew that whatever was missing, it started to hurt his enthusiasm for the art.

Genma meanwhile had different thoughts.

_The boy starts to become too rebellious. Good that he soon will have no chance but to obey with his honor at stake once we are at Soun's house..._ he thought.

He didn't like Ranma's growing independence in the slightest; not after putting so much work into him over the last ten years. Despite Ranma practically being unable to survive in a modern society (a side-effect which Genma didn't regret), the threat of his son running off had grown considerably, especially after he got cursed. But once at the Tendos, Ranma would be left with no choice but to play along, that was the plan. And should everything go right, he wouldn't have to worry about the future. The only minus was that he wouldn't be able to see his wife again, but that was only of small importance to him. And he was sure, she would understand.

Genma didn't even remember anymore that this was the corruption speaking. He had lost the battle even before leaving to the training trip, where it had overwhelmed him totally, with Nodoka's calming influence gone. The once kind and caring man was gone, surpressed by the ingrained behaviour beaten into him on his own training trip. The Genma of the present was greedy, impatient, a liar, cruel, and yet a horrible coward. An small part of his mind, almost muted out, sighed that maybe not meeting Nodoka was better, as her heart propably couldn't shoulder the grief over what had become of her husband and son.

And the corruption actually feared Nodoka, as her very presence was like poison to it, helping the good side of Genma to return to the surface.

Genma's inner monologue stopped, when he noticed something on the ground. Picking it up, he looked quite pleased with his catch, a leather wallet. "Ho-ho, looks like we can fill up our pockets."

"Pop, you're disgusting." Ranma knew the honor code of the martial artists and tried to live it, but he also knew that his father had forgotten the rules of honor, watching him going through the contents of the wallet. "And we wouldn't be broke, if not for your big belly."

"Why do I have such an ungrateful son...?" Genma grumbled. Most of the stuff was useless, like identification papers, and he threw it away. He pocketed the Yen bills, then pulled out the last item. "Tokyo Transport Authority. Two one-way tickets."

Genma was known to say that everything, regardless how ridiculous, helps the art. But he also was incredibly lazy and would never turn down something of worth. Looking first to the tickets, then to the near train station, he decided that his lazyness would win, getting with public transportation to Nerima sounded good to him. "Come, boy! We take the train."

Ranma shook his head. That was his father's lazyness speaking; he shyed away from any real efford if he could. "What, Pop? Can't take some walking? What about 'a martial artist's life is full of hard work'?" the sarcasm in his voice was all to clear, it was one trait everyone would develop in Genma's presence.

"Quiet, boy! I did decide!" Genma barked, not wanting to hear anymore of it.

Ranma shugged, he had the feeling that his pop, who sometimes managed to make the most normal of situations turn into an almost-deathtrap, would again mess up royally. Well, if that happend, he would do what he learnt was the best: try to get out of the line of fire and watch Genma's ass getting roasted. It had worked several times.

Little did he know that fate was screaming in anger right now. Its last chance to throw Ranma into a life of total chaos was gone. Not only would the train protect him from a temporary rainshower, thus helping him to keep his form, but also he would end up in a place that certainly was not Nerima. A simple wallet lost by someone had never come at a better time.

He was actually going to the right place.

After ten years, he would return home.

* * *

_...later, in the Minato ward..._

Nodoka Saotome read her grocery list for the final time, before putting it into her purse while walking through the Minato ward to the grocery shop. She had been so occupied with her book that she had only now remembered that she still had to stock up her nearly empty fridge. Not that there was too much to stock up, since she was living on her own without anyone else in her house.

Her empty house.

The spirit of the house had never been the same ever since Ranma had left. A constant undercurrent of sadness hung over her home. Something irreplaceable had been lost to it all these years ago, and the wound had never healed. Her empty house was also berating her constantly with its emptyness for her bad decisions which had led to her current situation.

Remembering this made her once more aware of the heartarche that she felt for years.

_And to think that I hadn't even missed him until I met Saeko... _Thinking of her friend made her remember one of the most difficult times of her life.

It had been nine years ago, when she had fallen off a ladder and had spent weeks in a hospital with a badly broken leg. One day, the doctor who treated her, Saeko Mizuno, had asked her why no one visited her. It was odd for her that despite Nodoka being marked in her file as having a family, no one came. At first she was reluctant, but slowly she started to trust her and told her why her family didn't visit, all flavored with her warped views on this and the world in general. With each minute Dr. Mizuno had looked more disturbed.

The breaking point had been when she'd told her about the seppuku contract.

Dr. Mizuno had looked shocked, disgusted and... with pity to her. But instead of turning away, she had offered her friendship. Only much later had she admitted to her that she had seen a woman whose life was essentially ruined, but who was completely oblivious of that very fact. And she really wanted to help her, feeling that she had to do so.

What had followed had been a hard year.

Saeko had been set on opening her eyes to reality and pull her out of the circle of people that strengthened her warped woldview. It was a difficult process. After several months in which she'd carefully introduced her to new ideas and managed to make her open up somewhat, Saeko had started her attempt to break through this armor of extreme conservatism and traditional upbringing. It had almost cost their friendship and resulted in lots of shouting and anger. Nodoka'd felt betrayed that her friend would question some of the basics of her worldview.

But then Saeko had come up with the suppuku contract and asked her point blank if she could really force her only child to commit suicide in cold blood. This had made her stop, and some things did have sunk in over these months.

The idea of killing her only child over something as vague as manliness... Thanks to Saeko the final consequences had penetrated her mind. She had pictured it in her mind, and the harsh reality of what the contract meant caught up to her. She'd seen it in her mind's eye. Her standing in front of a young man whose face she was unable to see, the floor covered in an ever-growing puddle of blood. Blood spilling out of the wound he'd caused to himself, the tanto still stuck in the wound. This final consequence, which she'd alwas known but never really thought about, did it.

Horrified by herself and that she actually had had wanted to go through with it without questioning it, she broken down, crying on Saeko's shoulder for what felt like hours. Without the pink glasses of a warped woldview, her willingness to force her child to kill himself had scared her to no end. And she had then felt that she was a bad person, and a really bad mother, falling into a deep depression. In mere minutes she'd went from being sure of being righteous to feeling as if she was the lowest of the lowest.

Again, her friend had been there for her. And with her now willing to listen, the shock had been enough to break the final resistance. She was gently guided out of her depression and she turned away from the circles that had encouraged her behaviour. Saeko was a true friend, helping her to get her life back into order, and making her open up to reality.

She even had made her again taking up her art of the sword, which she had stopped participating after meeting Genma. She had improved much over the years, won in the woman's devision of several kendo tournaments. The trophies decorating the family room were witness of how far she'd come, while the prize money insured that she wouldn't need to leech on the special account set up by Genma any longer.

But all this didn't bring back her son.

After her "awakening", she had tried to find him, but the only thing she found were reports on things that Genma had done, none of them positive, some form the police. She knew what it meant, her fear had come true and her husband had fallen prey to the corruption. She was sick with worry what this would mean for her son, growing up in such an environment. She knew, allowing Genma to take him away was her biggest failure. She had symbolically burned this damn contract and strewn the ashes onto her garden, but she knew that it wouldn't release her from her loneliness.

A weekly post card from Genma (which of course had no indication from where it was sent) showed that at least they were still alive, but three weeks ago, that also had stopped. That had increased her fear of what her husband had done this time that he wouldn't even write her anymore, regardless how made up the usual contents of these cards was.

She was almost there, the shop was near the Azabu Juuban station, right next to the tracks.

"Stop complaining, boy!"

She stopped dead cold when hearing this voice from around the corner. She hadn't heard it for years, and it sounded different, harsher and deeper than it used to be. Yet there was no doubt for her who it belonged to. It was the voice of her husband. _Genma? Could it be?_

"Stuff it, Pop! It was you who decided on which train we should take!"

She felt her heart starting to beat faster. That was the voice of a young man, and he had called the other man his father. _I have to know! _ Walking around the corner, she stopped again when witnessing a confrontation between a father and his son in front of the train station.

A confrontation caused by pent up frustration.

Ranma felt annoyed. Of course his father had messed up and took the wrong train, resulting in them ending up in the wrong ward of Tokyo. That was quite a feat, as Minato and Nerima were on opposite ends of Tokyo. His father was unable to read even a simple network plan; and now his old man barked at him for it. This did not help to improve Ranma's opinion of his father.

"It's your fault alone. So don't blame me for it!" he added, pointing a finger in accusion to his father.

Genma meanwhile felt that his son's little rebellion started to get out of hand. He hadn't suspected that his rebellious streak already run this deep. He would now show him his limits before carrying him off to Nerima. Once there, the engagement would bring Ranma back in line. "You asked for it, son! You act like a girl! It's time to show you your place!" That said, Genma thew off his backpack.

Despite his anger, some nervousness was also present, which he hid well. As soon as he'd left the train, something at the back of his mind told him to get the hell out of this place, that he was in grave danger. Ranma's little rebellion however had priority at the moment. He ignored the voice at the back of his mind, telling him that this place seemed familiar, instead preparing to give Ranma what in his mind he'd deserve.

"Bring it on, old man!" Ranma snarled, letting go of his own pack.

Now he would stuff the old man's mouth, his limit reached with that last insult. He could endure much, but he hated people making fun of his curse! It was embarrassing and humiliating, so making fun of it was a bad idea. That, and he would never back down from a challenge. He was just about to take the first strike, when...

**"GENMA!"**

Both turned to the source of this enraged scream, their confrontation forgotten for the moment, to see a middle-aged woman with reddish-brown hair, wearing a sky-blue kimono, looking in ice-cold anger to Saotome the elder. Ranma noticed that his father went as pale as a sheet as soon as he saw her, something he only did when really scared. Ranma knew right away that this meant his father felt that he was in mortal danger.

"Genma Saotome!" Nodoka hissed, while slowly approaching the man that was her husband. While she was excited that this young man was most likely her long-lost son (which also made her again feel guilty for not seeing him growing up), her anger at Genma was right now bigger. It overrode her motherly pride of seeing how Ranma had grown into a strong man for the moment.

Genma now knew why the surroundings looked familiar. Minato ward was where the Saotome house was located, and that was exactly what he had tried to avoid: bumping into his wife. He knew that once she'd learn of Ranma's curse, both their lives were essentially over. After all, being cursed to turn into a girl was hardly manly. At least she hadn't her sword with her at the moment, meaning he at least would get to live a little longer.

"Uh...eh... hello No-chan," he stammered.

"Don't No-chan me, Genma!"she hissed, silencing him.

She had now no doubt that Genma had changed, alone by looking how fat he had become, looking nothing like the warrior he used to be. The once muscle-packed and agile man looked as if he'd aged much more than just 10 years and Nodoka had no doubt than he was completely bald beneath this bandana.

"Pop, is that again someone you scammed? It's getting old," Ranma complained, not recognising his mother, although he felt that he should know this woman. He looked to her. "Did he steal from you, or did he break his word?"

Nodoka was taken aback. Her son didn't recognise her? Of course it was ten years ago, but she didn't look much different and Genma could have shown him pictures. Sadness now added to her anger. "Genma, this is Ranma, right?"

Genma knew, lying to his wife right now would bring him into an early grave, so his cowardice won by a far margin. "Yes."

"Why didn't our son recognise me?" her voice became frosty. Thankfully her friend had helped her with anger management, otherwise Ganma would now have a number of angry red handprints in his face. She'd save his punishment for later, now she wanted answers.

Genma struggled to answer.

Ranma meanwhile blinked. The whole situation confused him to no end. First there was this woman who his father clearly recognised, and then she was claiming to be his mother? He feltthat couldn't be right. "I, your son?... But Pop said Mom died 10 years ago. That's why we went on our trip in the first place."

"You told him that...I... died...?" Nodoka took a number of steps backwards, onto the road, trying to get distance between herself and Genma, so that she wouldn't do something she would regret later. The sheer shock at this relevation had drained the color from her face.

Ranma was still confused, but then again, he knew his father. And as loathe as he was to say it, he didn't put him above doing something like that. Looking at her a little longer he made comparisons to himself, since he knew that he didn't resemble his father at all. The family resemblance to her however was undeniable, especially when comparing it to what he looked as a girl. There was a very big possibility that this was indeed his mother.

He grew angry when thinking about how much this must hurt her right now. Even though he had been just exposed to the idea of still having a mother, he already felt protective of her. Oh yes, Genma was in for a beating as he had never experienced before.

"Pop, I'll...!"

**-BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAPP- -sccrreeeeeeeetcchhhhhhh-**

The blaring of a horn ripped him out of his thoughts, and in horror he saw a big truck driving directly towards his just-found mother. It was trying to stop, its brakes working on the limit to make it stop, but the sheer mass made the stopping distance too long and it surely would hit her with enough force to kill her!

"NOOOOOOOO!"

It was instinct. He jumped, pushed her out of harm's way. That of course put _him_ into direct danger! He tried to reinforce himself with his lifeforce, as he had been taught to do to make himself extra tough and durable. However, there wasn't enough time to completely do this and the last thing he felt before everything turned dark was getting hit very hard. Mercifully it happened so fast, he didn't feel any pain.

**"RANMA!"** Nodoka screamed in terror when she saw her son getting hit full force by the slowing truck. He was thrown through the air like a ragdoll, landing hard on the road further away, while the truck finally stopped.

_No! I can't lose him again! _Running to him, she was taken aback by the blood, and on first sight she saw that at least one leg was badly broken. But... he was still breathing. She had to fight to not go into full panic. This was far too much like her nightmare where Ranma would commit suppuku. There was so much blood...

"Great kami!" Looking up she saw the driver of the truck, who had jumped out of his vehicle, looking shocked at what had happened. He ran back to the driver's door. "I call the ambulance!"

Nodoka looked up to Genma, who also looked really shocked at what had just happened, then back to her gravely injured son. "Please don't leave me... I have so much to make up to you... I don't want to lose you," she begged, tears running freely down her face.

* * *

_...Minato central hospital..._

Nodoka looked like the whole world rested on her shoulders, while she waited for news. Ranma had been wheeled into the emergency room over an hour ago and since then they had heard nothing. It was made worse by the fact that Genma had said nothing all the time, only looking nervous to her. She again wondered how much he must have changed in these years (in a spiritual way, although looking at his bald head he had changed on the outside as well). Right now she was sick with worry over her son. Reunited after so many years only get threatened to be seperated forever.

She wondered if that was karmic punishment; to be finally given what she'd desired so much, only to be cruelly reminded that life was a very frickle thing and remind her once again, that her son could be taken from her forever, something that years ago she'd actually been will to do by her own hand.

Looking to Genma, she saw him avoiding her eyes. He seemed uncomfortable in her presence, which she deduced was a clear sign of fear and possibly guilt. Unlike her, he'd never been good at hiding his emotions. For now she would lay off, but as soon as Ranma was safe (and she didn't doubt that he would recover) she would grill her 'dear' husband for answers.

Finally the door opened, and a doctor walked out. Nodoka recognised her friend Saeko Mizuno. It seemed that she'd been on duty when Ranma had been brought in. However, the blood on her green surgery suit looked a little disturbing. "Saeko. Is he...?"

"Don't worry, he is going to be alright. However, he did recieve his share of injuries that will take quite some time to heal. It's a wonder... normally I would have expected him to get hurt much worse. Judging by the description of the accident it should have killed him," Dr. Mizuno told her in a calm, reassuring voice. She knew everything concerning her son still was an emotional topic for Nodoka.

Nodoka let out a breath of relief. Ranma would recover from his injuries. Then her mind caught up with Saeko had said. "How bad is it?"

Saeko hated it to tell her friend the extend of Ranma's injuries, but she felt that she should be honest with her. Stripping off her gloves and trowing them into the trash bin, she listed all of Ranma's injuries. "His left leg is badly broken in multiple places, as are two of his ribs. He's got very bad bruises and a concussion. We had to stitch the wounds where the impact was worst and treat numerous other skin injuries. However, he was lucky. No organ damage, no injury to his head or spine. With time he will make a full recovery."

She let out a sigh. "A wonder that he came out of it with only these injuries."

"That's no wonder at all."

That was the first thing Genma had said since the accident. It also sounded quite arrogant as well. "Better explain yourself..." Nodoka demanded, her eyes seeming to burn holes into him; something which he ignored.

"We martial artists of great skill learn to use our ki to reinforce themselves and form shields to protect us harm. That's why we can do the things we do." He snorted. "Seems the boy got sloppy. All the training wasted...owwww!" Genma's rant was cur short when his wife pulled down his head by the ear... hard. Only now did he realise that he shouldn't have said the last thing in her presence.

"Genma..." The growl made it clear that Nodoka was losing her patience.

"That loss there is your husband?" Seeing her friend nod, Saeko found that this man had changed a lot from the photos she had seen. But after all she had heard from her friend, of the things she got word of, it didn't surprise her much.

Right at that moment, the doors opened up and Genma's suffering was interrupted for the moment when they saw Ranma being wheeled out, deep asleep under the influence of the sedatives. He looked really bad, almost half of his visible skin an angry purple. And even then, he still looked so peaceful. They were silent until he'd been wheeled away.

Saeko looked hard at Genma, the woman's deep blue eyes holding a depth that was frightening to Genma. "I guess he will have much to tell you, and I shall write down everything." It sounded like a threat.

Nodoka pulled Genma along by the ear, which was quite a feat since he was taller than her, until they reached Saeko's small office. Once inside, Nodoka let go of his ear while Saeko locked the door. Genma gulped when his wife looked him hard into the eyes. He was a skilled martial artist, but the hard eyes promised big trouble shouldn't he fully cooperate with his wife and start talking. Nodoka had changed, so much he could feel. She no longer was the submissive wife. While still a woman with dignity, the years living alone had hardened her. And despite how powerful he was, even in better days he hadn't had the strength to go against her.

His survival instincts kicked in and he fell to his knees. Fear for his life right at the moment was overriding all his pride. "I talk! I'll make a full confession!" The sheer fear overrode the temptation to lie to her, him hoping that telling the truth would result in mercy. At least he hoped that she'd show him mercy.

"I expect no less from you," Nodoka said, while sitting down in one of the chairs. She felt that this could take quite some time, as ten years were a long time. More than enough time to commit countless stupid things.

She couldn't have been more right.

* * *

_...hours later..._

"I really wonder how your son managed to not end up as a cripple in a wheelchair after what he had to endure for years," Saeko said in sheer astonishment while she and Nodoka stood by Ranma's bedside to wait for the teenager to wake up.

Ranma looked worse injured than he actually was, wrapped in bandages, his leg in a flexible cast. That the cast was flexible had a good reason, namely Ranma's curse. A regular cast would have been murderous should he change, as his reduced height would cause bad complications. They'd relayed that information at the last second, preventing a complicated removal of a hard cast. The curse, which they hadn't believed in until throwing some cold water on Genma, was the crowning of an incredible story of greed, stupidity and sheer incompetence that Genma had revealed to them in his long confession.

A close second in his stupidity was what he called the neko-ken, something for which both woman had almost strangled him. The mere idea that he had done this to a child of six years... Numerous small, old and faded scars were silent witness of his suffering in this horrible pit. They wondered how Ranma had survived this horror in the first place, especially with his mind still intact, although they also now knew that should he get pushed over the edge he would become very dangerous.

The whole thing had been especially bitter for Nodoka, as Ranma had loved cats as a child. Maybe it was a blessing that Ranma's own cat, whom he'd loved dearly as a child, had died three years ago of old age. She also would have to hire someone to remove all the wallpapers in Ranma's room, as they had a cat-motif on them.

Lots of other insane training methods had followed, with each of them capable of being lethal. Multiple engagements that were impossible to honor, including one stolen dowry. Genma had commited a great number of small crimes, running quite a tab. They had been thankful that his latest and yet first engagement-sheme had been foiled by mere coincidence. And while Nodoka was proud of family honor, she couldn't support the engagement with the Tendo family. Genma's stupidity had caused the agreement to be void at the very moment he'd made a second engagement. All the other engagements were essentially null and void, as Genma then already had lost the authority to do so by then.

She knew it would be her responsibility to call the Tendos and tell them these news. Not something she was looking forward to.

"You have enough reason to divorce that fat bastard. Why did you decide not to?" Saeko then asked her friend. She herself had developed a very negative opinion of Genma Saotome. "The evidence is stacked against him and the courts would fully agree with you. It would be his dishonor alone."

"I actually considered it. But I have a reason why I didn't," Nodoka explained. She was very hurt over how much to the worse Genma had changed in these years, feeling guilty that she had inficted this hell on Ranma by allowing Genma to take him. "Genma himself actually warned me years ago that something really bad was lurking inside him. He knew this could happen to him. I want back the man that I married, and I will get him back... But he will first feel what I think of what he has done. Don't think I will let this get unpunished."

Saeko shook her head. There were some things about her friend, she would never understand. While Nodoka had finally learned to live in the modern world, some of her views still were a little bit anachronistic. "I still think you're doing an error."

"That from you... I remember how you and your husband were close from divorcing before you found a way to make everything work," Nodoka remarked.

Seako knew that she was no role model for marital issues, so she felt she shouldn't comment on it any more. Right then she saw Ranma stir. "Oh, look, your son is waking up!"

Said Ranma felt like shit.

The last two things he did remember was the radiator of a truck wanting to get him better known and a sharp pain that followed. After that there was nothing but darkness. Since he felt horrible it meant that he must be still alive, since the dead obviously couldn't feel like shit. Learned habits kicked in and he took inventory of his body and its injuries.

_Bandaged up... chest hurts, propably broken ribs... left leg in weird feeling cast... and my head is still ringing... _he mentally listed.

All of it was stuff he had had before, but not all of it at the same time. Forcing his eyes open, he was greeted with the faces of two woman. The first he didn't know but her doctor's coat made it clear what she was. The second woman however he did recognise as his newfound mother. The simple idea of her here...it made him fear that it wasn't true.

"Are you...really my Mom?" his speech was still hampered by his tiredness.

Nodoka couldn't fault him for being insecure. Not after ten years in which he had thought that she had died. She took hold of his hands to assure him, having trouble to hold her own emotions at bay. "Yes, Ranma, it's really me. After all these years my prayers were heard and you returned."

"Ahh... Mom, please don't cry... I feel sorta guilty that I did something wrong whenever a girl cries." While he would surely need to get used to the fact that his mother was back in his life, he knew that a crying girl, even and especially his mother, made him feel bad.

She knew she should control her emotions better, but this control had fully slipped. "I can't help it. They are tears of joy... When you were taken from me, you were a mere boy of six years. And now you you've grown into a man. It was my ignorance that made me miss seeing you grow up. You knew nothing of me, yet you didn't hesitate to save me. Even in this short time... you already made me proud of you."

Ranma blushed. His father never had given him such praise, never said that he was proud of him. What his father hadn't managed in ten years, his newfound mother had done in mere minutes. "I'm bad with words. I know nothing of you... and you know nothing of me."

Nodoka needed a second before she understood that her son was sad that it had come this way. He didn't know how to react since he knew next to nothing about her and he obviously still didn't fully understand the ramifications of her being back in his life. "We'll have more than enough time to learn of each other... And actually I do know of what you did all these years after we made your father confess everything."

That was news to Ranma. Normally his father was the most stubborn person in the world (after him) and wouldn't reveal anything he didn't want to. Not even when pressured with injury. His respect for his mother rose up quite some notches for managing the seemingly impossible: to get Genma to talk. "Uhm, actually where's Pop? I don't see him here."

"Right now he his lying on the floor of my office, recovering from the bruises your mother gave him after he was done with confessing," Saeko added from the side when seeing that Nodoka didn't want to answer that.

Ranma looked questioning to his mother, wondering who exactly this other woman was. A normal doctor wouldn't be so nosy and surely would not stay while they were talking. So there had to be more to it.

"Ranma, this is Saeko Mizuno. A doctor and dear friend of mine for years. She is one of those who treated your injuries," Nodoka introduced her friend to Ranma.

"Hi. Guess a friend of my Mom can only be all right..." Only then he remembered that his father had confessed everything. Did that mean she also knew about...? He looked back to his mom, a little pale. "Eh...did he tell you...?"

Nodoka knew, she couldn't avoid it any longer. "Yes, he told us that you have a curse that changes your gender, although we haven't seen it yet and don't plan to for a while because of your injuries." Seeing him wince, she felt confirmed thaat this was a very sensitive topic for him. "This isn't something I'll hold against you, I love you in either form."

"We know that this must be very difficult for you. Which young man wouldn't be horribly embarrassed and disturbed by turning into the opposite gender?" Saeko added, hoping that this would reassure Ranma they wouldn't see his emotions over the issue as a weakness.

"Completely motified would describe it better..." Ranma almost whispered.

Nodoka knew that this was the sign to change topic. "Your father also told me about these mad training methods, including the worst..."

Ranma felt like hinding under the bed sheet, his two most embarrassing secrets were known to his mother. And while relieved that she didn't mind his curse, her knowing of the neko-ken was like lead in his stomach. "Oh joy... Why didn't you kill Pop for it?"

"I was tempted... But then I decided that this would be too much of a mercy. Son, I don't hold it against you... And believe me that you'll always be my son, regardless of what you look like. Never doubt that," she tried to reassure him.

She would never tell him that before her 'change' she propably would have disowned him over the whole thing. She thanked all gods that they'd allowed he to become a better person, or metting Ranma again would have ended in disaster.

Despite still knowing next to nothing of his mother, he couldn't help but to like her. She was so understanding and didn't either make fun of his problems, nor did she turn away from him -a reaction a big number of people on his journey back to Japan had, when seeing the curse first hand. Then he again looked embarrassed. "I don't even know your name."

Nodoka again felt like strangling Genma. That her son had even forgotten her name spoke against her husband. "It is Nodoka, dear. However, I'm not offended if you continue to call me mother or Mom."

Ranma didn't know where to start with his questions. He wasn't good with words, he also wasn't well adapted to interacting with people, a fact he had no idea of. He wasn't used to feeling emotions like this, so he tried to conceal them since Genma had drilled into him that men don't show such weak emotions, although his father had nothing against showing these emotions himself.

However, before he could think about what to ask, he felt a need arising.

_Great, now of all times... _he groaned inwards. Nature tended to make itself known at the worst moments."Uhh... can you help me get up? Before we talk I have to take a leak."

"I fear you won't get out of this bed for a while with your ribs as broken as they are at the moment. You can't even sit up without the danger of making it worse," Saeko shot him down. She then looked to Nodoka. "We knew this would come up. Should I call the nurse...?"

Nodoka thought about it for a second. "I don't think this will be neccassary today. I'm his mother so it won't be toubling for me to do this." That said, she grabbed a weird looking, empty bottle from the bedside.

Ranma eyed this bottle questioning. Right now he had no idea what this was for. "Mom?" His eyes went wide when he watched his mother pulling the lower bed sheet to the side. "Mom, what are you doing?"

Needless to say that after this was done and these two started talking, Ranma's face sported a blush for at least half an hour after this demonstration of how his mother wouldn't hesitate to do something necassary, and what this bottle was for. It didn't help that she said that she had changed his diapers so many years ago.

It only made it even more embarrassing.

* * *

_...next morning, Tendo home..._

It was a typical morning in the Tendo home in the Nerima ward of Tokyo. Mostly. The atmosphere in the house was right now a mixture of disappointment and relief. Yesterday the father of the three Tendo sisters had dropped the bomb that one of them would get engaged to the son of his old friend Genma Saotome. The girls weren't happy with the idea of getting forced into a marrige, especially to a complete stranger.

The father Soun Tendo had also said that his friend would arrive with his son on that day.

That had been yesterday and these two hadn't turned up. Everyone reacted different to this new development.

The father, Soun Tendo, had become worried and close to tears. After his beloved wife had died ten years ago, leaving him with no male heir to carry on their martial arts school, his agreement with Genma Saotome had become his anchor of hope that in the end the school would be saved from extinction. While he loved his daughter Akane, he doubted that she was fit to take over the school. And now Genma and Ranma hadn't shown up. He worried if something had happened to them.

Kasumi, the eldest daughter, was a bit disappointed that she had prepared everything for guests that hadn't shown up. While she had her eyes on someone else, she still had hoped that this Ranma would be a mature young man. Because if he was, she would follow her duty for the family. While she was willing to sacrife a lot for the family, even she had her limits, as seldom as these were, so she wouldn't consider an engagement to someone younger than her or of questionable character.

Nabiki, the middle daughter, was miffed that she had made herself extra presentable for a possible dumb hunk who she could use at her disposal, only to be disappointed by him not appearing at all. Unlike Kasumi she would have taken up the engagement even if the guy was not suitable to her tastes, mostly just to get something out for herself. Duty to the family be damned, she had seen it only as an opportunity to get a good piece of meat to order around, extort and use to get some steam out of her system, nothing more.

Akane, the youngest daughter, was relieved that this boy hadn't turned up at all. Ever since some dumb boy named Kuno from the year above had issued an even dumber decree that no one at school could date until she was defeated by a boy in combat (no doubt he thought of himself) and used violence to make sure that no one dated, a good chunk of the male population tried to fight her every morning, most in pure desperation. She didn't want to cause serious injuries, but this already went on for weeks, with no one lifting a finger to stop it, and by now her nerves were laid bare.

She propably would have beaten this Ranma into a pulp in her upset mood, so maybe it was fortunate for both of them that he hadn't turned up.

**-riiiiiiiiiiing- **The telephone interrupted the silence. Kasumi answered it. "Hello, Tendo residence... Oh yes, we expected them... My father? A moment please... Father, it is for you, a Mrs. Saotome."

Soun dashed to the telephone when hearing this name. Genma never had mentioned his wife to him, but he must have been married to have a son since he doubted his friend would have accepted an offspring out of wedlock. He didn't know what to expect for this woman. Maybe Genma had taken a little detour to his wife? Yes, that soundd logical to him.

"Yes, this is Soun Tendo speaking... Oh, really, they did arrive!" That answered the question, so his friend and his son did arrive in Tokyo. "What happened? Oh...that's too bad. Will he recover?... Good. While you call, there is something else..." He got interrupted and paled. "...Oh, but... Please, you can't do that! The schools have to be united... He did what?..." Soun started trembling. "No, no! Please no..." Then Soun started to cry, unable to talk any longer.

Kasumi took the phone from his hand. When her father had one of his episodes, as seldom as they now were, he'd become completely impossible to reach. "I'm sorry, but my father is unable to answer right now..." She listened to what the woman on the other end had to say. "This is what happened?... Oh dear, I hope he'll get better soon... Oh, that explains his reaction... Good, I will relay it. Can we still expect you here? ... I understand, not until Ranma is well enough... All right. Good-bye."

Both of her sisters looked questioningly at her, wondering what news this woman could have told their father that he would react this strong. Nabiki arched an eyebrow, she hated to be in the dark, while Akane impatiently drummed her fingers on the table.

"All right, what was this about?" Nabiki finally asked.

Kusumi looked a little sad. "Mrs. Saotome said that her husband violated the terms of the agreement by making several other engagements as well, essentially breaking a vow of honor and thus nullifying all agreements in the end. Poor father didn't take it well. She would have come to tell us personally, but her son had been in an accident and she doesn't want to leave him alone in the hospital for too long. Oh, I hope he will be well."

"Oh, too bad," Nabiki shugged, then went on with the task of getting ready for school. She propably would make quite some pocket money with these interesting news.

Akane also didn't feel sad in the slightest. These news meant that at least that problem had solved itself. That propably was the best for everyone concerned, with exception of her father. But it only made her mood a little better, since she would still be facing the gauntlet again today. It would be only a matter of time when this would escalate into something with serious results. And even Akane knew that should this happen, the cowards in the school administration couldn't look away any longer.

But she hoped that it wouldn't come as far as her doing something she would regret.

"Oh Saotome, how could you?" Soun wailed, feeling like his friend was leaving him in the rain. "Now the school is doomed to die out."

"HEY! What about me?" Akane hissed. She was always angry when her father didn't think of her being able to carry on the school. That he felt unable to take her training any further for years now felt like a big insult to her. "If you would help me to get better instead of wailing all the time that I'm your little girl, you wouldn't have a problem with securing the school!"

"But I need...a male heir..." Soun sobbed during his crying, not wanting to tell the real reason, that he didn't think that Akane was fit for being a sensei.

"You shouldn't have said that, daddy," Nabiki remarked sarcastically, while walking to the door with her school bag and bento in her hands. She knew that this would have come one day and she wanted to be out of the house when her younger sister would blow up over this.

Akane couldn't believe it. She'd suspected something like this for some time buthad always convinced herself that it was just her father being too soft on her. And now she got confirmation that he'd possibly never intended for her to seriously learn the art at all, propably having speculated to marry him off to this Ranma and become a housewife.

"I can't believe it! I'm not good enough for you?" she screamed into his face, her own face turning a deep red from her anger. She was livid! "So all my trainig until you stopped was just a sham until you could marry me off?"

"A...Akane..." Soun stammered.

She didn't want any of that, her frustration and anger now pouring out. "No, you now listen to me..."

Kasumi felt helpless while watching Akane screaming in anger at their father, who again started wailing, this time over his daughter yelling at him. For a long time she had seen the rift between Akane and their father slowly growing. Him not wanting to train her to the truely advanced levels, and her growing anger over being treated like this only because she was a girl. And as much as she had tried, nothing had mended this rift, which now was deeper than ever.

She feared that Akane's growing anger would get her into serious trouble.

* * *

_...some hours later..._

Nodoka and Saeko waited for the man to come out of Ranma's room. He had been in there for over an hour now.

They knew that it wasn't really fair, but after yesterday they felt that such a tactic was only in Ranma's best interest. During Nodoka talking with him yesterday, the more she had learned about Ranma the more concerned she had become about his well-being and his future. Especially since Ranma seemed oblivious of most of the problems. In the end she had intercepted Saeko before she clocked out, telling her everything, unsure what to make of this.

Saeko had suggested that someone with a professional psychologial training should speak with her son. Of course without him knowing this fact. Ranma otherwise would be deeply hurt and block off every attempt to talk to him. Also it had to be a man, because as Saeko put it: "men under themselves are more likely to talk freely".

It seemed to have worked, considering how long he already was in there.

Finally the man left the room, dressed like a normal caretaker. He closed the door, then looked to the two woman. "Good thing your husband isn't here. I never before saw someone who was raised by a parent with such incompetence."

"At least we now have the opinion of an expert..." Saeko remarked.

Retreating to Saeko's office for some privacy, they were curious what exactly the verdict would be. As soon as the door was locked, he started talking. "After everything you told me and after what Ranma said, I can get quite a good picture. He was easy to talk with and I found out a lot from stuff that he said on the sidelines," he told them.

He then looked to Nodoka. "Mrs. Saotome, first and formemost the good news: your son is enjoying a good mental health and actually he's quite intelligent, even if it doesn't look that way on first sight. But growing up in the company of your husband has caused more damage than you can imagine."

"Please, I can take it..." Nodoka already had a suspicion that it wouldn't be good news.

"Your son will have serious problems to fit into a modern society. His father has done such a poor job of raising him that a number of concepts are totally alien to him. He has serious trouble to express his emotions as he thinks that is unmanly. He learned to fight, but not how to solve problems without violence. His school attendence has huge gaps and he will have serious trouble to get into the grade that corresponds to his age."

"You might be surprised to hear that he is tired of travelling around and feels that his life is unfulfilled. He is unhappy with his current situation and would actually appreciate a normal, even a ittle boring life in a stable home."

He took a breath. "Then there is his curse -which I wouldn't have believed if not for a demonstration on his father- which is difficult for him. He didn't say it, but he is terrified and embarrassed by it, especially since he is totally ignorant of the female body." The curse had been really shocking, and he still had a hard time to accept it as a fact.

Nodoka looked ready to cry again. "And what can we do to help him?"

"He needs a stable surroundings, a place where he can root into. Find him a tutor who can help him before he takes the entrance exam. He is intelligent, only needs to learn how to use it for school, instead of getting bored during class. Be understanding and patient with him when you explain something that's new for him, explain social skills to him. And try to gently get him used to the fact that his cursed body is also him and that it is a healthy female, something not to be afraid of. Try to tell him that he will always be himself, only that he now has a second body with its own rules, needs and secrets which he should accept and explore without embarrassment."

He sighed. "I'm sorry if that's all I can say, but for a detailled analysis he would need real sessions. And I doubt he would agree to this." He then excused himself.

"A stable, warm home, I can offer. Also patience and helping him to get used to this bizarre curse, which I still have to see. But I do not know how to make him accept a tutor and take school serious. He told me he finds school boring and a waste of time." Nodoka already felt that the coming weeks and months would be difficult for all of them.

"Try to appeal to his ambitions, that works for most men. You say he wants to become a martial arts sensei? Make it a challenge for him. Tell him that to be a licensed sensei, he needs a college degree in physical education, and that everyone would laugh at a sensei who is ignorant of things that everyone should know," Saeko suggested.

Nodoka thought about it. "I guess that will work. But where to find a tutor that is willing to help him AND capable of teaching him things without making him bored?"

Saeko had to admit, that was quite a problem. "Someone who can... Nodoka, you know of my daughter Ami, right?"

She nodded. The girl was known to her. A very polite girl, but something about her was a little strange. "How couldn't I? I met her a few times. No offense, but she is strange."

"Yes... as loathe as I am to say, but I fear I didn't raise her as well as I could have. My Ami is so smart, always the best. She didn't even need all that extra learning and the cram school. She would breeze through the school work with no trouble. But she is so utterly alone... has become so fixated on learning in her loneliness that this is now mostly what she does nowadays. Learning, learning and even more learning... it has become almost the only thing in her life and I fear what will happen once there isn't anything to learn anymore," Saeko said sad.

"And you think she will be the right one to help my son?" Nodoka wondered.

"It will be for the best. Ami is a very kind girl with more patience than anyone else. And both our children need interaction with someone of their own age. Hopefully that will finally break that vicious circle when she won't be able to visit cram school any longer," Saeko suggested.

Nodoka knew that while she would be there for him, Ranma really needed friends of his own age. So maybe it could work out. "All right, I give it a try as long as you can convince your daughter as well."

* * *

_...at the same time..._

Ranma felt the ki pulsing through his body. One of the things he did learn was to use his own life energy to accellerate the healing of injuries. He again thanked the monks for teaching him this technique while forcing his father to work on the fields to pay for the damage done earlier. The stay at the monastery had been one of the most pleasant ones in the last year and the monks actually had even told him that he could be so much more than just a fighter.

The only drawback of the techinque was, that it was really exhausting. However, he was determined to get out of this bed as fast as possible. He could live with a broken leg, he would still have his mobility. But these broken ribs chaining him to the bed was too much for him, especially after realizing what it would mean to be forced to stay in bed.

His thoughts wandered while he concentrated on healing his broken ribs.

_My Mom... She is really nice, no comparision to Pop. Wonder why she married the fat slob in the first place? The way she's walking, I wonder what kind of art she is practising?... Man, I bet Pop is now in for it, seeing how riled up Mom became when I told her some of the stuff he did. Not that he didn't deserve it... And what will I do, now that I won't travel anymore?_

He had no idea what to do once his injuries were healed. Now that the journey was over, he felt sort of empty, unsure what he would do. _Mom mentioned school... Why should I? It's boring and I don't need it to become a good martial artist._

He fingered his hair, which was in a pony-tail instead of his usual pigtail. Thank all goodness that he had avoided this strange soup back in China, otherwise he would have propably ended up bald. Of course Genma had tried to get his hands on it to cure his baldness, resulting in him getting literally kicked into the nuts by its owner and wailing like a girl (ironic in that he always accused him of this).

_Wonder if that crazy girl is still after me... Nah, guess we lost her at the port... _he thought, remembering that girl who was out to kill him. The one that had the name of a hair-care product. _All these chicks in that village were crazy... Good that I don't want return there._

Right now he had an opponent he didn't know how to battle: having no idea what path he would go.

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"Meeting a new Friend"**_


	3. Meeting a new Friend

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

Finally Ami and Ranma meet and start to prepare for Ranma's entrance exam. That, and other familiar faces will show up...

**Note that this is the updated chapter, it is significantly better from the original one, as my writing skills have improved a lot over the years.**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Meeting a new Friend**

Ami Mizuno was busy with learning.

That actually wasn't anything new, as most of her time was filled with learning, although she didn't need it to keep herself at the top of the school grades. With her high IQ she didn't need cram school or going through the whole content of her school work three times. She did so because there was little else for her to do. However, that didn't mean that it actually was fun for her. Not anymore.

There had been a time when she had enjoyed learning for its own sake, but this was now in the past. Learning didn't fulfill her any longer. She saw it as what she needed to walk in her mother's steps and become a doctor of medicine, but further than that the thirst for knowledge had lost its sparkle for her at the same time as her life had started to become empty.

Ami didn't like to think about that part of her life, but the memories came nonetheless.

She had always been a sort of outsider. Her unusual smartness meant that many of the children would avoid her as they thought that she looked down on them, calling her the 'high-nosed egghead'. The older she became, the worse it got. Then two years ago, during her last year of middle school, there was the break. While before the others had only avoided her, the situation changed significantly in that year.

The private school she'd attended was for gifted people, and even there she was far ahead of the others. At the beginning of the year she had been declared the role model pupil of the year of her school. Normally a place of honor, but not in her case. Needless to say that many actively disliked someone like her in that place, as it meant that they would be expected to become like her. A feat practically impossible. They had started to actively resent her for putting the bar that high, and made her life hell.

It became so bad that her mother had to transfer her to a different school. Before she had been at a school for gifted children, but now she went to a normal, public school. Her mother's reasoning was, that maybe she could blend in better in that environment. Ami had been embittered that all her learning had made her an outcast. But there also was little else for her, as she was so scared by that experience that she didn't ever want to be noticed again.

Sure, she still was the top student at the Juuban High School, but she had learned to fade into the background as if she didn't exist in the first place in the mass of students. She had become a shadow, there and yet invisible. Many knew hername but next to no one what she looked like. Of course that also meant social isolation, leading her to fill her free time with even more learning.

How much she had learned to despise learning, yet she masochistically still did it.

Ami sighed. Even though most of the students at her current school actually hadn't an opinion about her at all and thus weren't biased against her, she would never be able to make friends. She simply had become too scared of another possible rejection. Simple human contact was difficult for. That was twice as bad for her as a girl that was growing up into a woman right at the moment, feeling all the urges that came with it. Seeing how other girls started to live the parts that involved being with boys only depressed her even more.

This was something she propably would never have.

At that moment she heard the front door open, meaning that her mother was home. Before the incident Saeko had pulled extra long shifts to give her daughter a life free of financial trouble. But after what had happened she had realized that she really needed to be there for her daughter in person, not just financially. So she had reduced her workload to a more normal level. Ami liked it this way, her mother was the only person who she could talk with about all kind of things. The only one who truely understood her.

Well, aside from her father, but he wouldn't be home until summer break, as per his schedule. Other people were always whispering about the arrangement her parents have found, and with which the three of them could live well enough. It was unusual but they actually found this to be working for the best. The best times of the year were those where he'd be home during school break.

Closing her book, she greeted her mother in the living room. "Hello Mom."

"How was your day, dear?" Saeko asked Ami. However, she actually already knew, as it was always the same.

"It was all right, Mom."

_Translation: "I had another miserable day." Exactly as I feared... _Saeko again felt that she had failed with Ami. "Ami, there is something I have to talk with you about. It involves your free time."

Ami rolled her eyes, annoyed that her mother again brought up _this_ topic. It started to get old; her mother trying to get her involved into social activities. She still shuddered at the last attempt which had involved trying to get her interested into clubs at school. After seeing the chemistry club's activities, she'd told her mother to never mention it again.

"Mom, we had this more than once already. I'm no little child anymore. That, and I have no idea what else I could do to fill my time," she told her directly.

Saeko had expected this reaction, thus ignored it. "I was not about to suggest meddling with this. No, I said this because there is a favor that I, or better, a friend of mine, needs from you. You remember Mrs. Saotome?"

"Yes. Considering how conservative she dresses, she is hard to forget. She is nice but a little strange. However, what could she want from me?" Ami remembered the woman who had visited them several times, although the details slipped her for now.

Saeko knew that this would be a longer explanation. "You see, her husband took their son away on a long training trip, to make him a martial artist. They returned recently and her son, who is named Ranma, had been in an accident and ended up in hospital. During his stay it turns out that his upbringing was a total disaster with him almost unable to function in a modern society. The reason she asks for your help is, that his school attendance record looks like a swiss cheese with huge gaps. Without help, he will be unable to get through the admittance test for the high school."

Ami now had an idea where this was leading to. "Mom, I can't tutor him. My cram school makes it impossible for me to spend so much time on him, if it is really as bad as you imply."

Saeko held up a hand to tell her daughter to be silent. "Please don't try to think of me as a fool. I'm not blind. I know that first you don't even need to go to cram school any longer, and second you actually don't like going there but haven't found another way to fill your time."

_How does she know? _Ami wondered. "But I never..."

"Your mother might not be as oblivious to your problems, as you might think sometimes," she told Ami with a slight smile. "I know you would like to fill your time with something different. So why not by helping someone with all the knowledge you have learned? This way you use it for a good cause."

Ami didn't know. What if that Ranma would reject her flat out just because of how smart she was? Also she was afraid of leaving her routine for something new. With so little information, she couldn't make a decision. "Before I decide anything... What kind of boy is this Ranma?"

"I wouldn't worry that he could be mean to you. From everything I saw I can conclude that he simply is too nice to be mean to someone, unless he gets really angry. But you must remember that he grew up with a father that never ever taught him how to play by society's rules. So he could say something rude without even noticing. He might seem dumb, but that's clearly a false impression. However, he has great trouble to concentrate his energy on school work, which is another effect of his upbringing," Ami's mother explained to her.

Ami thought about it. This Ranma sounded like someone socially inept, although that clearly wasn't his own fault. But truth to be told, she also hadn't the best social skills anymore. So it couldn't hurt to try it to break out of her current monotonous life. _Who knows? Maybe he is nice enough. If not, I can still bail out. _"All right, I'll give it a try, although it means I'll have to quit cram school. When actually do I start with it?"

"I think this would be best after he is released from hospital. It will also give you enough time to prepare. Uhm...Ranma has a little problem that is not my place to tell you. You will understand when you meet him," Saeko said vaguely. She felt it wasn't her place to give away Ranma's burden of shifting gender.

"Huh?" _I wonder what she could have meant by that? _Ami wondered.

* * *

_...Shanghai, China..._

Xian-Pu looked over the city in twilight, while wondering what to do now.

She was far from home right now, and as loathe as she was to admit it, it was solely her own fault. Thanks to her being a sore loser she had fucked up and now was forced to chase this red-haired outsider girl to kill her. This was why she was right now on the roof of a apartment block, preparing for the night.

_#This is my own fault. I should not have given her the kiss of death in my anger. The Elders had looked quite annoyed...# _she thought.

Life had never been easy for her. Especially since practically she had no friends in the village apart from Mu-Tsu. While he tried to be nice, he sometimes became a little too obsessive and his refusal to wear his glasses at crucial situations also didn't help. Being groomed from the beginning by her great-grandmother Ku-Lon to become a member of the ruling council in due time had brought her nothing but rejection. Her striving on becoming a warrior was another thing that had led to this.

The older warriors saw her as an upstart with too big of an ego, and thus humiliated her whenever possible. And right when she had finally gained their respect in the last tournament, her blunder had happened. The elders saw her still as a child far too eager to ascend, not taking her serious. The men thought of her as a spoiled princess who always got what she wanted. And the ones of her own age avoided her. The boys either disliked her as a typical 'warrior-bitch' or feared her enough to stay away from her. The girls were either jealous of her position and thus disliked her, or they thought of her as a brainless trollop who got everything only by heritage.

Xian-Pu knew that this wasn't exactly helped by the tensions in the village. The deep rift that had formed between the genders, with both sides becoming more bitter with each year. Her great-grandmother had told her of all the hardships the tribe had went through in the last 30 years, and how these had strongly contributed to the growing anger of the men, who no longer wanted to be restricted to what the matriarchy wanted them to.

_#Wen Shizang... No!# _Xian-Pu didn't want to think about that. It was simply too depressing.

Fact was, that this one bad incident years ago had forced the council to take action and forbid the kisses of death and marriage. The rule had proven too dangerous and had resulted in a horrible defeat of her tribe. That she had fucked up and violated this rule had made her look really bad. And now she was bound to fulfill this oath, if she wanted or not.

_#All this only because of my stupid pride...# _After calming down she had discovered that she found it difficult to think of killing this girl. She was trained to kill in battle, yes, but to murder someone cold-blooded, that was something totally different. The more she thought about it, the less she thought she could do it. Others might call her weak, but that was how she felt.

However, what was she to do?

_#They do not expect me to bring back her head. So maybe I can fake it. But only outside of China...# _She knew that to pull this off, it would have to be further away than this. That, and she already knew that the girl had crossed the ocean to the island of Japan as some dock workers had told her, since red hair was easy to spot.

Looking again over Shanghai, she decided that the outside world was interesting and that she should take her time before again tracking the girl. What she would do when she had finally found her was to be seen. She hadn't it urgent to return to Joketsuzoku.

After taking all this shit from the others for years, she finally had the choice to enjoy herself. And she didn't want to waste that. It felt strangely freeing to be so far away from the village, whose walls now seemed so constricting.

#"The search can wait. Now it is time for myself."# she decided. However, first she had to get some more mainstream-clothes and some black hair dye to blend in. She really wanted to be one of many who wouldn't be singled out.

And who knew what kind of fun she could have in this place?

* * *

_...a few days later..._

"Woah, feels great to be finally out of there!" Ranma had started to seriously dislike being stuck in hospital. Not that the personnel didn't try to be nice to him, but he had become bored out of his mind and embarrassed each time his inability to get up reared its ugly head. And being unable to get out of bed also had almost driven him nuts since he was a person who needed to be physically active.

The doctors had been baffed by the speed his ribs had healed and had almost made him stay longer. Of course his leg was still broken and he was covered in slowly healing bruises. It would need a lot of energy to heal his leg, and that would take time as well. Too much energy, so he partially had to let nature do its work. This of course made anything beyond his lightest excercises impossible, meaning that he needed to find something else to occupy his time with.

At least his curse hadn't been triggered in the last few days, that was little condolence though. During the travel back to Tokyo he'd been spash with frightening regularity, which had made him especially irritated.

"I'm sure you will like your home. Are you sure you do not remember it?" his mother asked him while they rode to the Saotome home with a taxi.

As much as he'd tried, he simply was unable to remember anything about his mother or his home. Ranma shook his head. "Nope. Wouldn't recognize it if I was standing before it. Pop made sure of that."

Nodoka knew that this was to be taken literal. After getting to know her son better, it became clear that he hadn't had any real memory of her or his home because of the deep shock he had suffered during the neko-ken training. It'd damaged his memory of events from before the pit. These memories were lost forever, another reason why she regretted her decision to let Genma leave with their son.

For now there was a different concern for her. "Son, we have to work on your speech habits. You sound like you come from the deepest backwater with the accent you have."

"Mom, I did travel through the backwater for ten years," Ranma reminded her. His training trip rarely had brought him to big cities, so it was no wonder that he had adopted such a heavy accent. "It's the way I grew up."

Nodoka sighed. She had forgotten the hardships of being a mother. And after all what she had heard, teenagers were even more difficult. She too, had so much to learn. "Granted... Still, no one will take a sensei serious who speaks like some poor pauper." She knew that this was the best way to ensure that he would try to improve his speech patterns.

Ranma had to admit, it did make some sense. He'd never get respect with poor speech patterns. After all, all the sensei he highly thoguht of had spoken without a hint of accent and very clear. He would have never guessed how many things beside fighting a martial arts sensei had to be capable of. A sensei had to have a college degree, be capable of interacting with his fellow people and have social skills. Everything he didn't have right now.

Of course he did have the will to try and learn this since he wanted to beat this challenge, but he had no idea how to get himself to learn boring school stuff, thanks to his Pop. His very active life had resulted in him getting bored when sitting still for too long. How had his father expected him to become a sensei then?

That reminded him... "Mom, where's Pop? Haven't seen him since the crash."

"I told your father to stay away, otherwise you wouldn't have gotten any rest. Also I told him that under no terms will I accept him simply freeloading off me. If he wants a place in the house, he has to get work for an income," she explained.

"Isn't that kind of...hard? I never saw pop on a job." It was true that Genma seemed to have an aversion against honest work, preferring to use less honest ways to get what he wanted.

"I know it sounds unfair to you right now. But after everything that your father confessed to me he did in all these years, being forced to have a honest income will be for the best." _That, any hopefully it will remind him of when he actually was a honest man, _she silently added hopeful.

"Hell will freeze over before Pop manages to hold a job for longer than a day..." Ranma remarked. He doubted that Genma would manage to hold a job, since he had very little skills; outside of stealing of course. Work and his father usually meant him being forced to do it.

Nodoka sighed. Her son knew the current Genma much better than she did. So as much as she hated to admit it, she feared that her son was right. Probably she would need double the patience, for Ranma and for her husband.

Finally they arrived at the Saotome home.

"Wow, it's really nice," Ranma commented when seeing the house. It was a mostly traditionally built house, although there were some obviously modern additions to it, like the TV antenna on the roof. It wasn't a mansion, but big enough enough to hold a big family. It was surrounded by a nice and well-cared garden with a separated, empty, sand-covered area.

"Is that a training square?" he wondered.

"Yes, nowadays I used it for some of my forms. It's where you father kept himself in shape when not visiting a local dojo, and where you did your first attempts to beat him up." It awakened memories of little Ranma hitting his father's knee with his little fists strong enough that Genma had walked funny for two days.

**-splash-**

"Oh, great..."

Hearing a girl's voice, Nodoka looked to her son and saw a red-haired girl in his place. A wet girl at that. When the taxi had driven away it had splashed Ranma when driving through a puddle, triggering the change that Nodoka yet had to see. Now there was no doubt that the curse was all too real. Nodoka had to admit that Ranma looked really cute as a girl, but she would never dare to tell him that as it would deeply hurt his feelings.

She also could see herself... In her youth her hair had been brighter, close to the red hair of her son-turned-daughter. Something she'd gotten from her grandfather on her mother's side. This was probably what Ranma would have looked like, if born as a girl. That, and she was quite a bit shorter now, having a little trouble with the crutches.

"I wouldn't have believed it days ago that this is possible... Son, is the change really complete?" she wondered, seeing that Ranma now filled his, no, her shirt really well.

Ranma sighed. It was one of these uncomfortable topics she'd wanted to avoid. "As far as I know, yes. I didn't check myself. I hate it to be like this and change back soon as possible. I feel funny like this, as if I don't have a right to even look at myself."

"Oh dear..." She hadn't had any idea that her son was this scared of his female side. Scared, and ignorant. "Ranma, how much do you actually know of the female body?"

Ranma scratched her head. "Uhm, not really that much. Up to now I only know that I have balance trouble with this extra weight in front and I can't take a leak standing, got a real mess the one time I tried."

Nodoka let out a sigh. It was even worse than she had thought. "I won't force you to anything, but you will have to learn a lot about your girl body. It is now as much you as your real one and you shouldn't be ashamed to learn about it... But I think this is for another time."

Mentally she added that Ami really needed to explain the female body to Ranma as well. She knew that she herself wouldn't be able to do so without making a complete fool of herself. It would have been different for her if Ranma would have been a real daughter, but now she propably wouldn't be able to get out .

Ranma didn't know what to think of that while they walked down the way to the house.

She'd had this body for a little over three weeks now and actually knew very little of it. She would never admit it to herself, but she was a little scared to actually learn more about it. She felt really strange, different, when being in this girl body. Although she undoubtedly was still fully Ranma, the body seemed alien. Her hesitation to see anything more than absolutely needed of course meant that she had no real idea of her girl-side's anatomy.

It felt like someone inside her head told her that it wasn't her place to know anything more about it.

* * *

_...Ranma's room, later that day..._

Lying on his bed -an actual bed that was much more comfortable than the hard futons of the past- Ranma now was back in his birth form and thought about everything he had encountered in the house up to now.

He had been right when thinking that his mother had learned an art judging by the way she held herself. The first thing he had noticed when entering the family room were some trophies on a shelf, taking a place of honor. His mother was quite proud to admit that she was practicing the art of the sword, Kendo. That she had won several times in the woman's division of some tournaments proved how good she was.

This helped him to give her even more respect than he already did. He did respect other fighters who are good at an art of fighting. In a way it also helped to connect to her, seeing that she was a fellow follower of a fighting art. She had suggested that maybe some day he might be interested to learn the basics form her.

_Why not? Couldn't help to be able to fight with a weapon as well... _

The rest of the house was radiating something like warmness, as if welcoming him. It did feel like a home, a real home. His own room on the other hand was rather bare. Apart from the bed he had a dresser, a desk with a lamp and a chair. Nodoka had said that she would leave it entirely to him how to decorate his room. If he only knew what he should put up, as he hadn't much.

All his belongings fitted in the backpack currently resting in the closet. Thinking about it, the fact actually was depressing.

_Really fitting, that's essentially what my life is reduced to. _The thought was sobering. He might look a little stupid on the outside, but inside he was capable of some serious thinking.

Lunchtime had come and his mother had proven to be a really good cook, although she admitted that it had been very long since she had cooked for someone other than herself. It was quite obvious that she was giving him especially much attention. His mother wanted really bad to make up for letting go of him all these years ago, even he saw that.

He even felt a little embarrassed with how much attention he got.

His mother had told him he would have a tutor so that he would be able to pass the entrance exam for the school. Ranma shuddered at the mere idea. Remembering the kind of teachers he'd had during his school attendance in middle school, it would be either some conservative old hag or some old I-am-the-sensei teacher. Both prospect were not very charming.

Also he doubted that they could make him actually learn something. He'd propably fall asleep within the first few minutes, being bored out of his mind. He couldn't help it, it just happened. His mother however had been silent about it when he'd voiced his concerns, saying it would be a surprise for him.

Talking of surprised...

Genma had returned barely half an hour ago. Still looking fearful to Nodoka, he had announced that he actually had found a job. That had surprised Ranma as his father was not known to grab a chance for real work, meaning that his mother must have really scared him or he simply didn't dare to go against her. That, or a mixture of both. Sure, the job wasn't that great, just being a help for manual labor in a warehouse near the harbor, but it was at least a beginning. Also, the job was literally dry to prevent hard to explain incidents.

His musing was interrupted when he heard someone at the front door. Listening, he heard his mother answer the door and then voices downstairs. However, he was unable to discern what kind of person the tutor was. Some minutes later there were steps up the stairs.

_Probably my tutor wanting to examine the terrain. Geez, I wonder what kind of boring person Mom has chosen..._

Getting up and taking his crutches, he didn't want to meet whoever it was while lying on his bed. He maneuvered himself to the chair at the desk. He had just sat down when he heard knocking on the door. "Come in, it's open."

His mother appeared in the door. "Ranma, your tutor is here and I thought you want to get to know her before you two start trying to figure out what you need to work on." That said she stepped aside to show him the person who was conscripted into helping him.

Ranma blinked, then looked to his mother. "Uhm, Mom? Isn't she a schoolgirl herself?"

What he saw was a girl that looked like she came fresh from school, still wearing her seifuku uniform whose prominent colors were white for the blouse and dark blue for the skirt and collar. Ranma knew at once that this was a uniform he would never wear as a girl, not even if threatened with torture. He guessed that she was as old as he was, having black hair with dark blue highlights and looking somewhat uncomfortable.

"Son, I think one of the things I need to show you is how to greet someone properly..." Nodoka sighed. Seeing her son wince she got the statisfaction that her words had worked. "This is Ami Mizuno, the daughter of my friend Saeko. Do not let her appearance fool you, she is easily capable of helping you to catch up. I thought you would be more likely to listen to someone of your own age."

"Oh... Uh, hi. I'm Ranma..." he greeted the girl rather awkwardly. He had little idea how to deal with girls of his age, no thanks to his father telling him all the time, that girls were only a distraction from the art.

Ami on the other hand was surprised how nervous the boy was just because of simply greeting her. "Hello Ranma. I hope I can help you as best as I can... if you want me to."

"Why not? Let's give it a try..." Ranma then noticed his mother returning with a glass of water. He knew what that meant. "Ohhh, Mom! Do you really have to?"

"I want to get this right out of the way. Otherwise it will only cause trouble." That said she emptied the glass over Ranma's head, who sported a look of defeat.

Ami was confused for a second, then she saw... she blinked, hoping that she had seen right. Her mind was in direct danger of shutting down when seeing something that should be totally impossible according to the laws of logic. Seeing Ranma turn into a busty, red-haired girl almost a head smaller really threatened to put her mind into a destructive loop.

_That's impossible... totally impossible! _she repeated again and again while staring at her.

"Mom, I think we broke her..." Ranma commented when seeing Ami still staring at her after a full minute.

That finally broke Ami out of her thoughts. "How...?" That was all she could get out. She was still trying to fit this totally illogical event into her logic-dominated world view. A feat almost completely impossible.

"Believe it or not, it's magic." Ranma had learned to accept that magic did exist, although it had been really hard for her at first. "Pop took me to that place in China. Turned out he can't read Chinese and ignored the warnings. Pools of Sorrow. You fall into one, you take the form of whatever drowned in it with cold water. Warm restores you. I got girl, my pop got panda. That's the short version."

Ami tried to get herself together while hearing this.

There had to be a logical explanation. But then, magic went against logic, probably because it was illogical in its very nature. This meant a logical approach wouldn't work. So instead she tried to concentrate on learning more so that she could deal with it. "Where does... where does the mass go?" That earned her a confused look. "I mean... your girl body is quite a bit shorter, so where does the extra mass go?"

Now Ranma understood. "No idea. I gave up on understanding magic and simply accepted it as the way it is."

Ami hated it if there was no explanation for something, but had to accept that Ranma didn't know as well. Then she blushed when she asked next "Uhm... is the change...you know... really complete?"

"No idea. Never saw a girl naked, so I have no idea what's different besides the obvious parts. And no way I want to...uhm... put my hands down there..." Ranma felt uncomfortable with that topic, grabbed her crutches and made her way to the door. "Mom, I change back. One moment."

Nodoka waited until Ranma had left, before looking to Ami. "Do you still want to tutor him?"

Ami didn't answer for a second, before looking up to her. "He's weird, this curse is weird... However, that isn't a real reason to deny your request. I'm still going to do it." Ami had decided to mostly ignore the illogical nature of the curse, or she would get a headache. Sometimes ignorance was bliss. "He seems nice enough."

"If it isn't any trouble for you, can you please also give him an extensive explanation of the female body? I'm in no position to tell him this, as I would lose my nerves and make a fool of myself," Nodoka asked Ami and hoped that she would say yes.

Ami also wondered if she could gather her nerves for this. Ranma seemed truly ignorant of these matters. And to explain to a boy who can turn into a girl the fine points of the female body... "Not for now. Maybe later after we have covered most of the work. I don't think it will be too urgent." And secretly she hoped that she wouldn't have to do it at all. The idea alone made her blush.

Ranma then returned, having turned back to his birth form. Nodoka then left them alone left to tend to the house and make sure that Genma wouldn't try to smuggle any alcohol into the house as she had a strict no-alcohol policy. After what she'd seen him doing while being drunk, she'd take no chances.

Ami readied her books and papers, deciding that she would find out first, where to start. "Ranma, what was the last thing you learned in your first high school year?" she asked him.

Ranma shrugged. "What high school year? You should know my Pop. Haven't seen a school from inside for over a year now after finishing middle school." Genma never had thought much of his education, so his school record was practically a disaster. Not that his father cared at all, preaching that school was useless for a martial artist anyway. Strange since without school he now knew, he could never become a sensei.

_Another thing where my old man fucked up royally, _Ranma thought, feeling that his father had almost destroyed his dream of becoming an instructor of the arts.

Ami almost dropped her book when hearing this. "Oh my!" _Houston, we have a problem..._

* * *

_...at the same time, London..._

Sitting on a rooftop during the deepest night, Sailor V, better known as Sailor Venus alias Minako Aino, was wondering what to do now.

She had won the fight and yet she had lost a lot. Katarina thought now she was dead after the explosion of the warehouse where she had defeated Danburite, thus destroying the Dark Agency. However, the victory had come with more revelations that made it more clear for her that she should leave London.

Alan and Katarina were a couple! How could she have been so blind to not see that? And then there was the issue of Danburite's curse that she shall never find love. Was it real? She was tempted to think so after what she had seen, knowing that magic was a real thing. She only knew that her stay in London would be over anyway, her parents wanted her to return to Tokyo as soon as possible.

"Artemis, what do you think I should do now?" she asked her white mooncat.

He was the only one who she could talk to about these things. Ever since Artemis had entered her life and revealed to her that she was destined to become a powerful magic girl named Sailor Venus, he'd become her closest friend. She'd at first not believed that a cut could be this smart. However, by now she'd accepted it as the most normal thing in the world.

"Now that the Dark Agency is done for, we should start looking for the Moon Princess. She is the key to securing the future and only her power can hold up against possible future evils," Artemis explained to her.

Artemis knew that finding the princess and the other Senshi now had top priority. Minako alone was powerful, but surely she was no match for more serious enemies. The Dark Agency had been relatively weak, practically a joke compared to the horrors he did remember. That, and he hoped to find Luna. He knew she was out there somewhere and he actually missed her. Her sarcastic, wonderful self that he actually found attractive.

Minako knew that this would have come sooner or later. She had done all this disguising as Sailor V to pose as the princess and dupe the enemies. Problem was that despite this they'd no idea where to find the real princess.

"But Artemis, how am I supposed to recognize her, if she has been reborn as a Jane Doe?" she asked her advisor.

"Actually, I have no idea. While I managed to track her location down to you home city, Tokyo is still huge. It makes me wonder how we can find her," Artemis told her. He had used every trick in the book to get a closer lock, but it was useless. "It is like the literal needle in the haystack."

Both of them had went through a lot since meeting for the first time almost half a year ago, awakening the power of Sailor Venus within Minako. There were some difficulties for a 16-year old girl to be a superhero and a teenager at the same time. She had needed quite some time to get used to being a Sailor Senshi. She had thought meeting a talking cat was a strange dream. And after her first transformation... Artemis had needed almost a week to convince her that there was no other way than to use THAT costume. She was still embarrassed that this ultrashort skirt flashed her panties at every small movement of hers. Should her mother ever see her in that thing, she would have a stroke. Whoever had designed the suit had been either a huge male pervert or a hardcore lesbian.

It was exhausting to be a super heroine. Beside herself going against crime, she had stumbled over the Dark Agency quite fast. Good thing that her disguise as Sailor V was a double-insurance to stay anonymous. After a while, the lead had led her here, to London. And now it was over, the evil defeated.

Artemis meanwhile had other thoughts. He was still embarrassed that he had been unable to find any of the other Senshi. He'd even stubled over Minako more by accident, as if being drawn to her. Maybe it was the connection to her still there from her previous life. Hopefully they could be re-united soon with the other Senshi. Only together they were strong.

Minako sighed. "Artemis, how can we find her under millions of people, not to speak of the other Senshi that yet have to awaken?"

"Do not fear. The princess' location is well known to me."

"Who is there!" Minako was alarmed at once, jumping up to confront the intruder. She was prepared to blast this woman -the voice was clearly female- with a Crescent Beam but stopped when seeing what she looked like. A woman with long, dark-green hair -THAT was unusual- wielding a long staff and wearing a Senshi uniform like her own, only that her skirt and other highlights were all black and she wore long boots. Combined with the fact that this was a grown-up woman, she radiated dignity.

"Do not fear me. I am not an enemy," thewoman calmly told her.

"Who are you?" Minako stayed careful. This could be a trap of their enemies to trick her into letting down her guard, so she was ready to blast her should she make one wrong move.

The woman looked to Artemis. "Don't you remember me, Artemis? It was a long time since we last met. Many years have passed since then, so I won't fault you if your memory has gaps after being so long in suspended animation."

Artemis looked closer at this woman. He knew her somehow. _These damn memory gaps! _Finally a name came up. "Sailor... Pluto? The mistress of time?"

Pluto give him a small smile. Living for years like a normal woman had been really good for her emotional health. "I see you do remember me after all. Don't worry, with time all of your memory is going to return to you."

"Sailor Pluto... Artemis, does this mean she is one of Senshi we are looking for?" Minako asked Artemis. She felt a little intimidated by her, feeling like a little kid compared to this woman.

Artemis felt some of his memories returning, now that he had something to start with. "Some of my memory is returning... She is one of the planetary warriors. Like your domain is linked with Venus and love, hers is linked to Pluto and time. But I wonder why she is here, since I remember her as being reclusive."

"Before I speak, please drop this disguise, Sailor Venus." Pluto then waited. Minako trusted Artemis' judgment that this was an ally, and returned to her true form of Sailor Venus. Pluto then continued. "It is true that I was reclusive. I learned that I can't any longer sit back and do nothing. So I came to help you, guide you on your path. As the Senshi with the most experience I feel that this is the best way for me to help you. Now, I think you have lots of questions."

"Pluto, what did you say about the princess?" Venus asked her.

"The princess is safe. Her location is known to me, and in due time she will awaken. So do not burden yourself with looking for her. She will reveal herself at the right time. Your main objective will be to locate the Senshi of Mercury, Moon, Mars and Jupiter," Pluto explained. She knew that the search for the princess would be a wild goose chase, since it was Usagi herself, so she wanted them to do something more useful than that.

"What about Saturn, Uranus and Neptune?" Venus wondered further.

"These three will be of my own concern. Like the inner Senshi are to be the guardians of the princess, the outer Senshi are warriors to hold off outside dangers. It is my job to find them and lead them into battle," Pluto explained.

Pluto knew, she would need to do a gentle job with Michiru and Haruka, otherwise the shock of the repressed memories would be too much for them and make them rather ruthless. As for Hotaru... the time wasn't right yet but she'd not again let the poor girl suffer her original fate. Hotaru deserved better than that.

"I will do what I need to do," Venus said confidently. "That however still doesn't solve the problem of finding them."

"Do not worry about it. The Senshi are naturally drawn to each other. You'll find each other naturally. Just return to Tokyo and your search will be successful in due time," Pluto explained further.

Venus knew that she propably couldn't expect more than this. "All right."

"Very good. I saw that the evil will awaken soon. You and the other Senshi must prepare youselves to protect the princess when the time comes... I need to go now. I shall meet you soon again to ensure that you can contact me."

Pluto was about to teleport away, but then stopped. "Oh, and Artemis... Luna will be with the Senshi when you find them. So do not worry, you are about to meet again vey soon." Pluto then disappeared.

Artemis wondered how she could know that, but also was happy that Luna was still with them. Seeing Minako's grin however made him stop cold. he sighed. Now the Senshi of love would not stop until he'd spilled his guts over his crush on Luna.

In another part of London at the same time...

Danburite really hurt. This little Sailor V-bitch had done quite a number on them. All his love for her had turned into hatred. So if he couldn't have her, no one else should have her. He had barely escaped the fire and was already thinking about how to get even with her. It would surely be messy.

"Danburite."

He felt his blood run cold when he looked up and saw a man with white hair, wearing a grey uniform with a white cape. He recognized his superior. "General Kunzite, I..."

"Silence! You have totally screwed up, you loss. We gave you enough power and equipment to deal with this one Senshi girl, and you totally failed." Kunzite's voice was even and yet full on venom.

Danburite paled when hearing this. "I...I...I can explain..."

"Spare me you explanations. Your services are no longer needed." Then, without warning, beams shot out of his hand, setting Danburite on fire. His victim screamed for a few seconds before death came through the unnaturally hot fire. Kunzite looked down at the burned corpse. "This is the price for wasting the time of the Dark Kingdom."

Turning around he had no further eye for the smoking body. Queen Beryl had bigger fish to fry right now, with her trying the find the Silver Crystal. But of course it was them who would have to do all the work by investigating all the leads, something that would cost them a lot of time. Zoisite had made it clear that she would demand more time from him to deal with the stress, and he had nothing against that.

Kunzite then disappeared, leaving behind the body.

* * *

_...Saotome home, some days later..._

"Yes, if you hit an opponent weighting 80 kilograms with the power you calculated, he would be thrown back one meter. Well done."

Ami felt that she was finally on the right track with her tutoring. The first day had been a total disaster. She had tried to simply duplicate everything from her books and school and it had been a total failure. It had resulted in Ranma actually falling asleep. She had been ready to give up right then, when she'd had the right idea.

Until Ranma would learn that learning school stuff wasn't so difficult and boring, and she saw the first signs of it starting to rouse his interest, she would package everything in a way that would arouse his interest, to make him see how useful it could be and have a real connection to the world around him. Quite some of it had more or less connection to his art. And it did work. He didn't fall asleep after the first time and actually became interested.

Of course it was still hard work.

She almost had fainted when hearing what exactly he could remember from his school time, and the first test of the waters proved that it would be a hard uphill battle. His mathematical skills were underdeveloped, his knowledge of physics and biology slim and his handwriting looked plain horrible. While his Katakana and Hiragana could pass as decent enough, his Kanji were barely readable and he hadn't mastered quite a number of them -actually never learned them in the first place.

At least he was willing to learn. He had said that he wanted to become a martial arts sensei, which meant that he would need to learn all this to get a degree. Him actually having a motivation made her work a lot easier. And truth to be told, underneath his social ineptitude -of which she already had gotten her share, causing his mother to lecture him on the right behavior several times by now- he was actually quite nice.

Quite rough around the edges, but nice.

Ranma meanwhile again felt as if there was smoke coming out of his ears from straining his brain so much.

He had went through numerous challenges in martial arts and had considered himself capable of mastering any obstacle. However, being confronted with a challenge so different than what he was used to really taxed him. But he wasn't one to give up. Grinding his teeth together, he would master it, even if he needed to ask Ami more than once about something. Good thing that she had a lot of patience.

Also he didn't want to disappoint Ami. He had seen how hard she had taken it on the first day when he had fallen asleep because he simply couldn't keep himself awake during the boring lesson. He had felt immensely guilty after seeing how disappointed she was, obviously thinking it had been her fault. Thankfully it had become better the next day, with her trying to make things interesting for him, and it did work.

At first he hadn't had any idea how to relate to Ami's obvious superiority in all things school-related. He had finally decided to simply treat her like many of the martial arts sensei he had met during his travels, of whom he had learned to respect a number of. She was a master of knowledge, and he the learner, it was as simple as that. And while he did have very limited experience in dealing with girls, he didn't buy most of the bull his father had told him, although some of it did stick without him knowing. He opted to simply treat her like a buddy.

"It's so much easier once you know what to do," he remarked, while putting down his notes. If he could do this stuff really fast in his head, it could be useful during a match to target an opponent's weak spot.

Ami knew he meant her way of teaching him these things. "Yes, but this is only the beginning. Enough math for now. We now go to Kanji."

Ranma felt like groaning. It was one of these things that were difficult to package. So she had told him that getting a better coordinated hand was always good. And truth to be told, it frustrated him that there was a big number of Kanji he simply didn't understand. "I feel like a small kid."

Ami had to admit, these Kanji usually were taught in middle school. "It's no use to cry over spilt milk now. With hard work we can correct everything and get you ready." She had to admit she liked using all her knowledge to help him. However, she would keep a healthy distance.

They were interrupted when Nodoka entered. "I hope my interruption is not inconvenient, but I need to ask you two a favor."

"Both of us?" Ranma wondered.

It seemed she had expected this question. "I do not want you to sit in the house all the time, even with your injury. And since you are new in the city, you need someone to guide you... Look, Ami, do you know the Hikawa Shrine at the five hills?"

Ami nodded. "Yes. It's famous with school girls, although I have never visited it personally as I had no reason to."

Nodoka had to admit that a shrine could hold a reputation for so long, that was quite a feat. After all it alread yhad this reputation while she'd went to school. "I got a call from the head priest. He got something I asked him to acquire, but I'm unable to go to the shrine right now. Ranma, are you interested...?"

* * *

_...Hikawa shrine..._

The bus left the station in front of the shrine entrance, allowing a girl wearing a school fuku and a boy with a leg cast and on crutches, to make their way to the shrine.

"You know, I wonder how your mother made me agree. Thought I only wanted to tell her that it would cost our lessons quite some time to do this," Ami wondered while they slowly ascended the stairs, which was a little awkward for Ranma.

"One thing I learned fast is, that Mom can be quite... persuasive" Ranma at least now understood the comment his father had made two days ago, that she always got what she wanted. He then almost cursed when narrowly avoiding slipping off one of the steps with one of the crutches. He couldn't wait to finally have that damn cast off! "She only needed to look at me during lunch and I fell in line."

He remembered the incident. He had used his usual eating habits, learned because of his father always trying to steal his food in the name of training, until his mother had looked at him as if seeing a barbarian. It wasn't even an angry look, but it had made him swallow hard and eat at a much slower pace. Obviously she had asked Genma later about it, since he had spotted his father from the window of his room being busy with pulling out weeds in the garden.

Finally they reached the top and entered the shrine yard, greeted with a young shrine maiden of their age, whose long, black hair reached to a little below her waist, being busy with sweeping the ground. But then she stopped, without looking up. "Something doesn't feel right..."

"Hi!" Ranma greeted her.

"AHHH!" the miko jumped up, startled by the voice, at once a spirit ward in her hands. However, only seeing two people wanting to visit the shrine, she grumbled "Ha ha... very funny!"

Ami decided that she should better defuse the situation, before Ranma could say anything offensive that would make the girl angry. After all this miko didn't seem to have a high bullshit tolerance. "Sorry if we startled you. We're looking for the head priest."

The miko still looked a little miffed to Ranma, but then dropped it after giving him one cool look. "My grandfather? Well he is..."

"Oh, Rei, we have visitors! What a nice girl! Maybe you want to work here after school?"

The miko rolled her eyes when seeing the source of the voice. A man in his very late sixties, bald and wearing the robes of a shinto priest, barely reaching her height. "The head priest, my grandfather. Please excuse him, he is all right but he has a thing for watching teenage girls." She then turned to her grandfather. "Gramps, these two are looking for you."

The priest looked to them, his features showing that he was intensely looking at Ranma. "Oh yes, Nodoka called me to tell that you two would come to get the special wards I've created... Ranma, you have grown really a lot since I last saw you. Your mother must be really proud of you."

"You know me?" Ranma wondered. He couldn't remember the priest at all.

The priest was a little taken aback by this question. "Of course I know you. Your parents were wed here at this shrine, I conducted the ceremony. It was me who blessed you after your birth. Your mother comes to me when she needs spiritual guidance. How could you forget me? As a little kid you were always happy when you visited, since I always had a lollipop for you."

Ranma hated it to be reminded of his missing memories. "I had an training accident almost 10 years ago. Sorry, but I forgot most of my childhood memories from before it."

"Training accident?" The priest's mood darkened considerably. "Please don't tell me that your father is the one responsible..."

"He was. Mom is really pissed at him for it... You sound really pissed at my pop as well." Ranma wondered what his father had done to the priest. Although by now, only little did surprise him.

"You probably don't remember it. You and your father visited me as the first stop on your journey. Genma had asked if I had any scrolls on techniques. I didn't. But after you two left I found out that he had stolen a big sum from the shrine's funds. I never told Nodoka as I didn't want to burden her with it." The priest still looked angry over it, probably since it was a big taboo to steal from a shrine.

"His father robbed the shrine?" Rei couldn't believe that someone would do such an act. This Ranma's father must be quite a ruthless thief to do this. She had never met him, but already her opinion of him wasn't the very best now.

"Sounds like him." That was another thing on the list of Genma's faults. "I'll tell Mom. She'll drag him here by the ears and force him to work for the shrine to pay forwhat he'd stolen. His job leaves him enough time for it."

"I'm sure she will..." the priest remarked, working hard not to show much he looked forward to it. He then looked at the cast on Ranma's leg. "How did that happen? I hope not another training accident."

"Nah. A truck threatened to kill my Mom. Got her out of danger but then had a date with the radiator. Got this from the impact," he explained to the priest.

The priest's good mood returned. Ranma indeed had turned out much better than his father. Doing such a selfless act really spoke for his character. "Hmhm, and who is this young lady with you? Such good-looking girls are indeed rare, you got really lucky to have her as a girlfriend."

Ami, who up to now had only watched from the side, was now the center of attention and blushed heavily when hearing this. Now, that was a really big misunderstanding. "Eh, I'm only his tutor... I'm preparing him for his school entrance exams."

_There is no way I could ever do something like this! I would bail out and run away... _she told herself. She'd get a panic attack before even coming close to having a boyfriend.

The priest looked a little disappointed. He'd hoped that a young man like Ranma would have a nice girlfriend, not a brainless bimbo but a nice girl like this. "Oh, too bad. But where are my manners? Come, there is nothing to do and I would love to hear how you did all these years while having tea and cookies."

Rei watched her grandfather walking away with these two.

He had been somewhat more serious than usual, a side of his she didn't see often. He was a lot smarter than he often let on. And his comment about Ami being beautiful... She wasn't ugly - far from it. But she also wasn't a beauty queen. She more looked pretty normal, a little bland, nothing really outstanding. But she had learned that beauty doesn't automatically mean that someone was nice. She had learned that and she would always remember this lesson.

_At least grandfather is occupied. If any girls come, he won't be there to look like an old man with a perverted hobby... _she thought, while returning to her task of sweeping the yard.

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"Nerima shaken to the Core"**_


	4. Nerima shaken to the Core

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

The situation in Nerima gets out of control... with this time unusual results...

**Note that this is the updated chapter, it is significantly better from the original one, as my writing skills have improved a lot over the years.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Nerima shaken to the Core**

Akane Tendo was in a very bad mood, while she was on her way to school this morning. A very, VERY bad mood.

Tatewaki Kuno had continued his harassment every day, first forcing quite a number of the male population to attack her and then appearing himself to show off what a pompous jerk he was, spouting some bad poetry before she would shut him up with her fists. No doubt he was counting on her to be spent after dealing with the others and expecting an easy win.

Up to now she had done a good job at silencing the crowd without actually injuring them with anything worse than slight bruises -something she had learned thanks to her training- but yesterday her control had almost slipped. Poor guy had looked so scared that he'd said he'd rather face Kuno's wrath than again almost getting his head smashed in.

If this went on she feared that any day now her control could leave her, resulting in her causing real injuries -maybe even life-threatening ones. She knew that even with her incomplete training she was a walking weapon and knew strikes that could kill someone. She dreaded the day her control would slip, feeling so helpless because the chance of this happening became bigger with each day, with her nerves getting so thin thanks to constantly having to take this shit.

Even worse, there was no way to drain this anger slowly out of her system.

Her family was no big help. Her father, with whom she still wasn't speaking with, had taken the news of the cancelled engagement and her anger towards him so bad that Kasumi needed to help and raise his mood all the time, which meant that she couldn't be there for her baby sister. And Nabiki... Akane knew what Nabiki did in school, so she didn't even dare to ask her for help. It was scary how her older sister, who once had been the most cheerful of the three, had become so cold and calculating.

And no one in the school administration dared to raise a hand against this madness, since Kuno was the son of the currently-absent principal. A principal who was known to have...connections and who, as Kasumi put it, was pretty much a loon. Also no one would believe her what was going on, as everyone else would be too scared to actually testify against Kuno.

Sooner than she would have liked she approached the school gate. _OK, breathe... you can do that. Stay calm. Don't let this idiot get the better of you..._

Entering the school yard, she was greeted with a mob of boys, as usual. In the last days even some of the girls had joined in this farce, in order to end this charade by forcing a defeat on her. That was another sign that things were close to hit rock bottom. However, this time there was a variation. Tatewaki Kuno in all his buffoonish glory stood in front of the hoard, bokken his his hand, obviously waiting to deliver a pre-prepared speech. That was different to before, where he would wait until the onslaught was over.

She felt her blood pressure rising, fearing the worst at this change of routine.

"Oh what a lovely sight to see this is!" Kuno began to rant as soon as he saw her. It was clear that he must have changed tactics and now wanted to attack with the horde. "The lovely Akane Tendo, a prize truly worthy to conquer. A flower who only I shall have the privilege to fulfill."

That was the last straw. This declaration from Kuno had done it and her self-control slipped when she saw the horde and Kuno attacking her yet another time.

She saw red.

* * *

_...Saotome home, later that day..._

"When did they say will the cast come off?" Ami asked, while showing him how to solve a geometric problem. For two weeks now Ami had been busy with trying to get him ready for his entrance exam. It was hard, hard work. Thankfully Ranma had the will to learn, or this would have been much harder.

"Four days. And not one day to early," Ranma answered, again feeling the urge to scratch his leg as it itched horribly under the cast.

He hated the cast and would be glad to get rid of it. He felt like he had lost his bite and really wanted to get back in shape. He already felt the effects of this prolonged inactivity and he would have to work overtime on regaining the lost strength. He couldn't allow himself to slack off.

Ami had to admit, helping him every day had been quite an adventure and she had caught herself several times staying a little longer to just talk with him. He wasn't that great at conversation but also he tried not to hurt her feelings, although he unintentionally had done so several times, resulting in his mother looking displeased and him apologizing until she said that it was enough. Also, she had been amused when he told her that he saw her as the sensei and himself as the learner.

But how he actually felt, that she didn't know. He didn't speak much about his feelings and what went on inside him. He'd said he didn't talking about his emotions. Not that he knew much about her either. She had guarded her private life well and he seemed to accept that without a question.

Ranma meanwhile couldn't help but to admire Ami. That she knew all this from memory without much effort... He had real trouble to wrap his head around some of the more complicated stuff, especially when it was too abstract to package -although she had been able to reduce packaging and still got his interest. And yet Ami had remained mysterious to him. He actually knew next to nothing about her, apart from some things she had let slip when they talked. She was there and he knew she was nice and yet she was still almost an unwritten piece of paper for him.

He wasn't known as Mr. Subtle, so he asked her outright while completing the geometric form, "You know, funny... We know each other for two weeks already, yet I actually know next to nothing about you."

Ami winced when hearing his bad accent, something that his mother was busy getting out of him though it was a work in progress. The question did surprise her. Ranma actually did want to learn more about her? "Uhm... no one ever asked me that. I wasn't very popular."

"Their loss. You're a nice girl." Seeing Ami blushing a little, he wondered if he had said something wrong. Girls were so complicated. "Are you all right?" he asked, hoping that he hadn't screwed up again. He didn't want to hurt Ami's feelings, nor was he keen on getting lectured again by her mother, who could make him feel like a punished six-year old without saying even one angry word.

"No...no... Just no boy ever called me a nice girl..." She tried to get herself back under control. Seeing Ranma looking questioning to her, she felt she should tell him a little about herself . "You might admire how smart I am, but for me it is more trouble than blessing. No one likes someone who is easily double as smart as them. Everyone gave me a hard time until I switched school and learned to fade into the background."

Ranma couldn't understand that. Ami was so nice to him right from the beginning. Him, a total stranger to her. In his frame of reference it would be like others shunning him just because he had learned the art and they didn't. For him the idea was ridiculous.

"Pffft, jealous. All of them. Couldn't stand that you were better than them," he declared.

This took Ami by surprise. She had always assumed that others of her age shunned her because they felt she was looking down on them or feeling superior. She had never thought that it could be that others envied her for being so smart. The idea was new and actually explained several things.

"Why do you think so?" she asked.

"Met a lot of these in the art. Declared me to be a meat head just because I was better than them and they got jealous of me." No one had ever accused him of being very observant of the people around him, but that others were jealous of his mastery of the art and therefore shunned him, even he understood that.

Ami was surprised at this insight. She had never looked at her problem from this angle. It also proved something she suspected about Ranma: he actually was quite capable of understanding such situations, if he had a frame of reference he could relate to.

"That's actually the first time I look at it this way. -sigh- Although I try to forget it, they did call me many things. Unattractive, nerdy and an eyesore."

"Look, I'm no expert on judging how good girls are looking... But for me, you look pretty enough," he told her.

He hoped that it sounded nice. He wasn't used to sweet-talk with a girl. Using his limited ideas about female beauty, he found she looked quite good. But of course she had no chance to rival some of the girls he had seen, especially some of these psycho-girls in that village back in China. But in a way he preferred this girl, who looked more normal and less like a sexbomb.

One thing Ami had learned soon, was, that Ranma had difficulties when it came to lying. He was almost brutally honest. Of course that meant he could get into trouble for being honest when a lie or bending the truth were normally better suited to play by the rules of society. But right now, she again blushed at hearing the nicest thing a boy had told her up to now.

"T-thanks..." she thanked him.

That moment, the sliding door was opened and Nodoka entered the room. "Son, I..." she stopped when seeing Ami blushing. "Have I interrupted anything I should know about?"

"Uhmmmm..." Ranma had no idea what to answer to that. He felt reluctant to tell his mother that he had called Ami pretty.

"Ahm... no. No, Mrs. Saotome, there was nothing going on," Ami stammered. She knew she was acting like an idiot, but she couldn't help it.

Nodoka wondered what she had interrupted. Perhaps she should urge Ami to finally give her son 'the talk'? Ami had said that she would do so later, but Nodoka had the feeling that the girl wanted to cancel the whole thing. No, she wouldn't push Ami and her son together, interfering into things like that usually spelled disaster. But her son couldn't stay ignorant about girls, and what happened between boys and girls, for much longer.

But now there was a different matter at hand. "I'm sorry that I have to end your tutoring early, but I was called over the phone and the matter is serious. I need to clear this with my son and husband."

"Mom? What happened that you need me and Pop?" Ranma wondered. Why had a phone call riled up his mother so much? Normally she was the calmness in person.

His mother knew that he didn't know of this whole engagement-story in Nerima. She probably would have to protect Genma from their son after telling him the whole thing. But that couldn't be avoided now, when telling him of the mess that had happened in Nerima. A mess they had been notified of because her husband's friend's family was deep in it.

No, she wouldn't tell him this in front of Ami. "I'll explain everything downstairs. Ami, I fear all of us won't be at home tomorrow, so you have tomorrow for yourself."

Ami had a feeling that she should be relieved. Whatever it was that Ranma's mother had heard, it must have been bad. _After learning that her son is cursed to change his gender with water, what could make this woman so worked up? _she wondered.

* * *

_...at the same time in Nerima..._

"If you ask me, this is one of the biggest messes I've ever seen. It's moments like these when we're rudely reminded we live in a country where no one says anything until it all blows up," his co-worker from the social services said while preparing to go home.

Noboru Kaioh knew that his co-worker was right, this was the biggest mess in Nerima since he had started this job almost 20 years ago. A really big train wreck where numerous sad stories were revealed and a scandal laid bare were in the end surely some heads would roll.

Leaning back, he gathered his thoughts while trying to remember how it had started.

It had started right at the morning. They had barely started to work when they were called by the police. They were told to come to Furinkan High with everyone they got, especially getting as many as possible that had studied psychology, since they needed the opinion of professionals. The request was strange, but arriving at the school they found themselves in the middle of a huge mess and the explanation what had happened was already bad enough.

There had been a big fight in the school yard. Blood had been shed. Some onlookers had seen that and called the police. The fight had resulted in almost a dozed students having broken bones or other injuries, and one of them, wearing a kendo outfit, was still trying to swipe his wooden sword at a girl. They literally had to use gas to knock out the crazy boy while the girl seemed to have gone into shock. So while the ambulances cared for the injured, the police had tried to get out what had happened.

At first they got nothing. But once the first participant started to crack, more and more found the courage to tell the truth.

Apparently the boy with the sword, Tatewaki Kuno, had an almost insane fixation on the girl, named Akane Tendo. He had bullied every boy in school into breaking off any relationship with girls until Tendo was 'defeated'. When most had first ignored him, he had beaten up several of them, landing them in hospital with additional threats to stay silent. Kuno forced them to attack Ms. Tendo with a literal reign of terror. No one in the administration ever reported it because Kuno's father was the principal, a man with many connections, who was currently absent.

Noboru sighed, this was where they came in, as this kind of thing usually caused deep scars on such young minds.

The police were still busy with grilling the teachers and other personnel, while they themselves were busy with taking care of everyone. That was when the discoveries began. First there was the Kuno boy. Listening to him only for minutes, they already knew that he was so deluded and in his own world that only a very serious mental problem could be the cause. So they had driven to his house, only to meet the caretaker, a man name Sasuke.

At first he had said nothing. But after enough digging it became apparent, that the man's calmness was only a thin front to reveal a man that was plagued by guilt. He finally admitted that something was seriously wrong. Ever since the mother of the Kuno children had died years ago, they had to endure the growing madness of their father, which had resulted in emotional cruelty and making their lives hell. Then, some years ago, he had abandoned them altogether to leave the country.

Sasuke had started to cry while telling them how he had tried, how hard he had tried to repair the damage that had been done. But it was to no avail. Tatewaki Kuno had totally retreated into his own world, a world where no one could hurt him any longer. Meanwhile his sister Kodachi had snapped and truly become crazy. Crazy in the way of an extreme sociopath who could turn into a murdering black widow at any moment.

They had truly felt sorry for the man when he cried under tears how he felt like a total failure. They were still trying to calm him down while already decisions were made to get help for the Kuno children as fast as possible. Also they would send out word that Kocho Kuno, a possible madman, had to be put on the wanted list.

He hadn't known during this point that a different team also had met another sad story.

While Akane Tendo was still in shock over the fact that she had caused real injuries, she had said things that had aroused interest. So they had, after finally managing to assure her that everyone would recover, driven her home so that they could meet her family... And it turned out to be a really dysfunctional family.

Right at the beginning when they mentioned what had happened, the girl's father had broken into tears, crying that his baby girl had gotten intro trouble. When they asked the oldest daughter about it, she told them that their father was this way ever since the death of his wife almost ten years ago. A little more probing resulted in more answers. Soun Tendo was an emotionally fragile man. She didn't know the cause of it, only that it had something to do with his old, cruel master. The death of his wife Kimko had come all of a sudden and had hit him very hard. He was unable to do his job as a instructor of martial arts any longer and the family lived off a fund their mother had set up many years ago. Recently, a huge disappointment had hit her father and he took it badly.

Kasumi Tendo, the oldest sister, was reluctant to say more and only after more questions it became obvious that they had hoped he would get better, but instead he became worse. That was why they hadn't helped their father by getting him professional help. To the unschooled eye, Kasumi Tendo looked calm and oblivious while she said this. But a schooled psychologist had had no trouble to see that the whole thing was a huge burden for her.

Simply talking to her, while not getting off track when she tried to change the topic, revealed a young woman who was exhausted, tired, in danger of burning out. She had to fill the gap that her mother had left, trying to hold the house together. She had totally given up every of her dreams for the family and yet she had to see her father slowly being destroyed by his grief, her sister Nabiki shutting everyone out of her life and developing an armor of deep cynism to protect herself from what she felt a dangerous world, and her youngest sister Akane feeling more and more angry because she felt held back.

Kasumi admitted after realising that she already had said so much, that she hid all her grief behind a mask of cheerfulness so that the family wouldn't worry, but slowly her inner strength left her. She was a woman who threatened to break apart over everything weighting on her.

From there on, the situation had taken a pace on its own.

Nabiki Tendo had come home during this, and made it clear that no one would analyze her, before at once retreating to her room. That she had reacted so aggressive only proved what they had heard: that she tried to compensate her fears by trying to always be in control and letting no one near her. But since she had blocked everything, nothing could be done for her.

Surprisingly, the youngest Tendo sister had actually the least issues -only a growing anger that her father simply didn't take her serious as a martial artist- but the recent hell she had went through easily made up for that. Akane Tendo was scared of the fact that she had actually used the art to hurt others in blind anger.

Noboru felt a headache coming up.

Looking at the files on his desk, he saw the picture of a doctor in his late twenties. The man had a clinic in Nerima and was friends with the family, but they had some trouble with him when trying to get his opinion. He was nice, but had freaked when mention of the eldest Tendo sister was made, so they had to tie him to a chair. But after he had regained his senses, he admitted that he always had these blackouts when getting excited, especially when the oldest Tendo sister was mentioned.

_Strange man... Well, the guys in the hospital surely will find out what is wrong with him. Imagine a doctor not getting the idea of seeing if it is a medical issue... _he thought in amusement.

Noboru knew that this labyrinth of mental scars they had discovered wouldn't be so easily dissolved. But that was for what they were for. The less-than-pleasant face of Nerima had been shown. He had seen plenty of families in bad situations, but to imagine letting the whole situation become worse over the course of ten years until it had escalated in such a way...

_Yes, a do-not-tell culture, indeed! And then these people with the spine of an earthworm who had allowed the situation in the school to escalate..._

"Lots, lots of work..."

Trying to get his thoughts to some happier things, he thought of his daughter Michiru. She was the whole pride of the family. The young woman was such a talented violin player and also a very empathic person. Right now she was somewhere in Hokkaido to give a concert. The only thing that had made some of the relatives concerned was, that she was obviously playing on both sides of the fence.

_Really strange companion she has with this girl... _He had never before seen such a masculine woman, who yet could become feminine in a second. Well, unlike others he wouldn't complain about his daughter's orientation. _And to be honest, this Haruka girl is nice enough and promised us she would make sure that nothing would happen to Michiru._

Looking over the files, he vowed to get them into order and then call it a day.

* * *

_...the next day..._

It was an awkward atmosphere in the Tendo home.

It was no wonder when the family whose son weeks ago had had a wedding arrangement with one of the Tendo daughters was now present because of a different crisis. That they actually were there was because of Kasumi. She had remembered her father's old friend and hoped that hopefully her idea would mend the rift between the two men while at the same time getting what they needed for Akane. It would be beneficial for everyone involved.

But while Kasumi told the three Saotomes everything which had happened in more detail, everyone in the room had something different on their minds.

Ranma looked very angry to his father, still pissed over the wedding plans his father had done with numerous girls. His mother had thought it would be better not to tell him and he actually agreed with this reasoning, but now the cat was out of the bag and he was angry at his old man. That, and he felt uneasy with the way these girls looked at him. The mere idea that he had been almost engaged to one of them made the whole situation even more difficult for him.

Genma meanwhile had two main emotions. He was still scared by the sheer anger his son silently directed to him, remembering when his son had tried to beat him to death with his crutch. At the same time he looked concerned to his old friend. When they had parted ways, Soun seemed to have come out of the hell of their master's tyranny much better than him. But it seemed that only his happy marriage had held him together and Soun now looked horrible. The concern for his friend, real concern which Genma hadn't shown for years, made him worry what could happen to the man.

Nodoka meanwhile listened to the story while seeing the bigger picture. She could easily see that the whole family was hurting. The father was an emotional wreck and the daughters also were quite shaken, although they all hid it more or less. Nabiki seemed cold, Kasumi's worries overrode her own fatigue and Akane was really quiet.

Soun barely avoided another crying fit. The events of yesterday had hit him unprepared and almost caused his fragile psyche to collapse. For years he had lied to himself that nothing was wrong with him. It was only after this almost-breakdown and the presence of someone who did recognize the problem, that his remaining pride was broken and he had accepted that he indeed needed help.

Kasumi felt tired. No one had suspected it in all these years, but trying to hold the house together, acting as the replacement mother, had cost her much strength over the years. She had practically only lived for the others. However, as bad as the events of last day were, they had broken up the status quo. She hoped, really hoped, that all of them could get better finally. But there was still the fact of the favor she had to ask the Saotomes.

Nabiki tried to look indifferent, but in reality she was deeply disturbed by what had happened. While she always tried to pretend she would calculate everything in, this wasn't true. She had been unthinking when she had encouraged Kuno's lusting after Akane with pictures for money. She was ashamed of herself but didn't want to appear weak, so she hid her feelings behind a mask of pure ice.

And Akane... She still felt that she had violated the code at that day, had used the art for something that went against it, although by now she'd calmed by down after being reassured that there'd be no charges against her. She also didn't think she could find the courage to return to Furinkan High anytime soon. Even these people from social services had said that it would be better for her to have a change of scene, where she wouldn't be reminded of her problems every day. Akane already had a guess why Kasumi had invited the Saotomes.

Finally, Kasumi concluded her recounting of the previous day's events.

No one said anything for a while, until Ranma couldn't take the silence any longer. "Alright. Pretty heavy stuff. But what did that have to do with us?"

"Ranma!" Nodoka scolded her son, who at once went silent when realizing that he had goofed. She then shook her head. "I'm sorry, but my husband gravely neglected my son's upbringing, so his choice of words is often unthinking even if he doesn't want to be rude. He doesn't know any different but we are working on it."

Composing herself, she then continued. "However, he does have a valid point. Why exactly have you insisted on all of us coming here in person? I understand that your father and my husband are friends, but surely there is more to it?"

"Yes, there is." Kasumi knew that the true reason why she had asked them to come couldn't be put off for long. "You see, after what happened yesterday... After everything had spiraled out of control, we realized that Akane's wounds can't heal here, where she is reminded of it at every moment. She herself agrees she needs to get away from all of it. But we know no one outside the ward..."

Nodoka now knew what Kasumi was playing at. "So you hope that she can move to Minato ward with us, giving her much needed time away from all the reminders of what had went wrong?"

"Yes. We would be grateful if you could do that."

After she had mentioned that, Genma and Soun looked interested. Nodoka knew that could spell trouble. She felt bad about it, but she had to say it nonetheless. "I'm sorry, but I fear this is a bad idea. For one, our house doesn't have any free rooms. Also it could give your father false hope that there could be a chance to save the cancelled engagement. It would only lead to more stress for poor Akane."

Actually the latter was the main reason, as it wouldn't have been trouble to have a room directly under the roof of their house. She didn't want to create a new situation wher ein the end there'd only be broken hearts and hurt feelings.

Kasumi looked disappointed while Soun looked away, trying to hide his embarrassment. He had to admit that he probably would have tried something to push Ranma and Akane together. Desperation sometimes won over common sense.

Nodoka knew that the family now probably was really disappointed, but she wouldn't move a millimeter from her decision. However, she wasn't without empathy and so decided that there was an alternative. "However, there is still another choice. Excuse me, I have some calls to make and it could take some time."

_I hope one of them agrees..._

Watching his mother leave, Ranma then looked to the three girls. "Feels strange to sit here, remembering that I was almost chained to one of you."

All three girls had a different opinion on that. Kasumi was glad that she wasn't forced into the engagement, as she still had a huge crush on Dr. Tofu and generally preferred someone a little older than her. Nabiki's opinion that he was a stupid idiot had been reinforced and even the possible gain from a lip-service engagement wasn't worth it. Akane didn't know what to think of Ranma as he hadn't said much, but of course she didn't want an engagement as well.

There was some awkward silence until Akane decided that they really needed a change of topic. "THAT aside... I heard you are good in the art."

"One of the best there is," Ranma said with confidence. And it wasn't even in arrogance, he was really so sure of himself. "But if you want a demonstration, sorry. Can't do it with this," he added, pointing to the cast on his leg. "I can tell you are the only one actively training, although you are not up to my level."

"You're mocking me?" That was the last she needed right now, someone like her father: holding her back, making fun of her. She didn't need insult to injury.

Instead of answering, he looked to Genma. "Pop, you tell her what I did for training in the last ten years. Uncensored version. Dare you if you tell her bullshit."

Genma gulped, remembering his wife's reaction to his training methods, but seeing no way out aside for making Ranma even more angry at him than he already was, he listed off the hardships of the training and the insane methods he had used. Akane became paler when hearing how hardened Ranma had become and that his level could only literally be achieved through blood, tears and sweat. Soun on the other hand wasn't surprised, it was an aftereffect of their old master, may he burn in the deepest hells.

"I need a drink!" Akane said when Genma had finally stopped listing off insanity. Reaching for her glass with soda, she accidentally knocked it over, spilling the contents on Ranma.

Feeling the instant change, Ranma knew that she probably would never get a rest. _Why me? Now I have to pull off another explanation... _The curse started to really annoy him. He could only wonder what would happen if he changed in school. No, he didn't want to think about it.

Giving off a quite feminine sigh, she addressed everyone. "You know, this is a really long story..."

The reactions were quite varied.

Soun wondered if he had drunk Sake without knowing, checking his glass if it really was filled with something non-alcoholic. Kasumi didn't look fazed on the outside, but that only was because she was so confused that her mind had switched to auto-pilot. Nabiki's eyes had went wide when seeing the impossible, her mouth having mutated into a temporary fly trap. And Akane... going against her tomboy image she did something really ladylike: she fainted on the spot.

That was the situation that greeted Nodoka when she returned. "Good news, I found..." She stopped, looked around and spotted the reason for it. "Oh dear..." She slowly understood the reason for the change being labeled a curse, if it created such reactions. Well, they would better give them an explanation... of course after waking up Akane.

Genma looked to Soun, feeling that his old friend could use some distraction until this confusion was cleared. "Tendo, you still have the Shogi board? I think this could take a while..."

Soun mutely nodded, feeling that a nice game of Shogi with his old friend would distract him from the weirdness that had invaded his house.

o

Half an hour later, things looked considerably better.

Ranma's mother had indeed managed to find someone who'd take in Akane during her stay in Minato and Akane had calmed down after waking up, trying to rationalise Ranma's curse away. The grown-ups were right now busy with planning everything, so Kasumi had excused herself to clean the kitchen while Nabiki had almost fled upstairs to get space betwene her and Rama. It was almost as if she was afraid of him.

That had left the two of them and Ranma had become curios and asked for a demonstration. Akane of course was reluctant after the events of the morning, but finally agreed, thus why he right now watched her giving him a demonstration of all she could do without an opponent inside the family's dojo.

While watching Akane doing the various moves in her yellow gi, Ranma had to admit that it was a really nice dojo and it was a shame that it wasn't used to teach classes. Returning hsi critical eyes to Akane, he had no trouble to see where her weaknesses were. It was painfully obvious.

He waited until she was done, making sure to follow his mother's advice that while honesty was a virtue, being blunt about it would be plain rude. "Not bad... The potential is there, but the gaps in your training are undeniable."

She knew he didn't mean it as an insult and kept herself under control. "Well, I can thank my father. He never took my training serious, planned to get me hitched to you right from the start."

"His loss. Be glad that you didn't train with my Old Man. His opinion of woman is that they are good for three things: cooking, cleaning the house and having children," Ranma told her.

"I probaly would've killed him in his sleep after a week..." she muttered, then remembered his curse. "Wait, with your curse..."

"Yeah... You guess how he ripped into me after that. That was no fun..." Ranma by now had a serious dislike of his father's sexist attitude after being at the receiving end of it.

She had to admit, Ranma was perhaps the only boy who could truely claim to have suffered under sexism against woman. While she felt absolutely no kind romantic attraction to him, she felt that maybe they could be friends. For any more than that his life was simply to weird for her taste.

* * *

_...some days later..._

"But Mom!"

"No buts, Shingo. Your father and I gave our word," Ikuko Tsukino waved off the protests of her son. He hadn't been thrilled of a girl moving in with them, living in the room directly under the roof. But it wasn't that his protests had any weight with his parents.

"Thanks again that you accepted. Everyone else had one reason or another why they couldn't," Nodoka again thanked her, while watching the Tendo girl carrying her stuff upstairs. Akane had insisted on doing so, saying that she wasn't a frail flower.

"After you told me what that poor girl had went through, I couldn't reject her," Ikuko explained.

Ikkuko knew Nodoka Saotome for some years now. Since they lived in the same neighborhood it had been only a matter of time. Although the woman had only become approachable several years ago, before that she had been quite reclusive. She also noticed a difference in her since her son had returned to her some weeks ago. The woman had become more relaxed and open, as if a part of her had returned after a long absence, mending an old wound.

"Hopefully this will also be beneficial for my own daughter..." Ikuko sighed.

Nodoka had heard Ikuko several times complaining over her daughter's bad habits. It was one of the topics that came up regularly when having some tea with her. It seemed that it was still as bad as ever. "Is the girl still so lazy?"

"I can't make her understand that without good grades, she will fail in life. But she doesn't take the school work serious and is either busy with reading her fashion magazines or some love novel. I'm only glad that up to now she had utterly failed to get a boyfriend. At least one field where her clumsiness is of benefit for me... Usagi, what should I do with her?"

Nodoka knew what she had with her son. He at least really made an effort once he became interested in something. That, and he actually _wanted_ to succeed, while Usagi Tsukino didn't know at all what she wanted, living into the day.

Said Usagi was upstairs under the roof, helping Akane setting up the room.

"You say you do martial arts? Wow, although that's nothing for me. Far too to taxing. I think you'll like it here and there are lots of good looking boys around..." she said, giving Akane no time to respond when already jumping to the next topic.

Akane wondered if that girl was some sort of living chatterbox. She grimaced when boys were mentioned, because that was something she wanted to avoid for the time being. Finally she managed to change the topic. "Eh, is your hair natural? There aren't many blondes in Japan."

The sudden change of topic threw Usagi off, her chatter drying up for a moment. "Uh?... Ah. Yeah, it's natural. You wouldn't believe how often I hear THAT question. Doctors said it some sort of harmless glitch, nothing to worry about."

Akane knew that this was her chance to steer the chatter into a different direction. "You know, I know a redhead. Her mother has dark red hair, too. Ever wondered if there is some outside influence in people with unusual hair colors?"

Usagi thought about it for a moment. "There is my friend Naru and her mother. They both have rather dark red hair. I know that one of Naru's grandparents is a foreigner, but nothing more..." Usagi then again decided to change the topic. "But I must show you the arcade. There is a really nice boy working there..."

Akane let out a silent sigh when hearing Usagi return to her favorite topic. Usagi was a nice girl and they probably would become good friends with time. But the blonde's attention span was rather short and she was a rather girly girl, making her her feel strange since she wasn't that way (some called her a non-girl but had regretted that very fast).

Well, there was still a lot of time to get used to the blonde's quirks.

* * *

_...Saotome house, next Monday..._

"Ok... I can do it! Without resorting to analogies!" Ranma told himself, while working on the next question.

Ami had created an mock-exam of her own and he was right at the moment busy with trying to get through it. He already saw numbers and Kanji circling around him like vultures waiting for their prey to finally die, mocking him that he would never get it at all. But Ranma Saotome never loses!

Also he had heard some stuff three days ago which while being insulting, had also made him realize how other people saw him.

Since his leg had healed, his mother usually relied on him to carry everything from the grocery shopping trips. He had little trouble with the weight and it felt right for him to help her. During the last trip he had finally noticed how some people, especially elder woman, gave him looks that made him feel as if he was some sort of unwanted element. And he had heard their whispering that he looked like an uneducated loss who probably would never be able to earn enough for a living.

Hearing this had been pretty hard for someone who grew up mostly in a world where the physical fight was important. Their comments had been hurtful. That the battle of the mind was now also important, that was new for him. But he would prove all of them wrong! He would show them that he wasn't an uneducated idiot!

"Done!" Ranma sighed in relief when he had finally finished the last question.

Without a warning Ami suddenly appeared in front of him, her reading glasses reflecting the light, giving her a somewhat intimidating appearance. "Really? Let's see."

"Ahhh!" Scared, Ranma jumped up, before realizing that it was Ami. "Don't do this..." He had no idea how she had managed to sneak up on him. "Doh, you know I don't like to see you wearing these things."

"Hm? Oh, sorry... I normally don't need them, but without them I can't read the small print." Ami had no idea why Ranma didn't like seeing her wearing glasses. It couldn't be because he thought she looked better without them, right? Taking them off, she looked at the piece of paper. "Ok, let's see how well you have done."

Ranma was in high spirits that Ami would be proud of how well he has done. However, Ranma's high spirits didn't last long when Ami's red marker did it's cruel work without any mercy, resulting in the paper becoming more red than white. When she was done, he felt like the band on the Titanic playing the last song.

"Ranma..."

"Yeah?" He knew he didn't like the sound of her voice.

"You have improved a lot... However, since your exam is in a week, prepare for the week of hell beginning tomorrow." Ami hoped that she didn't sound angry. It was true that Ranma had improved. But after seeing **this**, she knew she would have to pack out the big guns to win this uphill battle.

He didn't like the sound of that in the slightest. He had the feeling that this would be harder than all the stuff his father had thrown at him in ten years, excluding a pit of cats. "Can I plead for mercy?"

"Capitulation is no option and resistance is futile." Seeing that he looked downcast by having done so poorly, she felt he needed some encouraging words. "Ranma, I know you can do it! Don't give up now."

"I don't plan to... But I need break." His head still hurt for the mock-exam. Sitting down on his bed, he looked to Ami. "You know... I wondered what happens after I entered school. Wonder if you still want to hang around with me then." In the weeks since they had first met, he had gotten used to her presence. Ami was nice and patient. He reluctantly admitted that he did want to have her around.

Ami actually hadn't thought so far yet. But now that Ranma asked her... "Ohm... You mean becoming friends? Doing things after school and helping each other?"

"I have no idea what friends normally do after school. But yeah, I like being with you. What do you say?" he offered, hoping that Ami would agree. He knew no one else and spending his entire free time with training didn't sound so great anymore. He felt that life owed him more than just that after 10 years of living for the art only.

Ami never had someone approaching her and asking to become friends with no hidden agenda. Sure, sometimes someone tried to get close to her to have a cheap learning help, but she had always ignored these and Ranma's offer of friendship was sincere. "Uh, I have no idea, either, what to do... You are different from the others. You admire my smartness, while others don't. You are so kind to everyone that it is as if you can't be mean at all. I really want to stay close to you, but we should better keep this secret in school."

"Why that?" Ranma wondered. Was she ashamed that they were friends.

Ami had to remind herself that Ranma was horribly naive and therefore couldn't know that. "It is because of the other girls. I'm sure you understand...?" Seeing no reaction ,she sighed. "Look, a lot of girls will see you as the perfect catch. They will try to win you over. So expect lots of unwanted attention and love letters stuffed into your shoe locker."

This confused Ranma only further. He had no idea what Ami was talking about. "Why would they want to 'win me over'? I don't really understand."

_He really doesn't know... _Ami wondered how long she could hold off telling Ranma the facts of life. "See, there are exactly two reasons: First, they want you as a status symbol; to show off that they got the best boy at the school."

Ranma understood that. So these girls wanted him as a sort of trophy to show around and boost their ego. "Now it makes sense to me. And what is number two?"

Ami knew, that was the hard part. "Some others will want you because they want to have sex with you, and nothing else." Seeing Ranma's questioning look, she added, "Look, I don't really feel like explaining it. It is something between boys and girls. It is a very private thing that you don't talk about in the public. Needless to say that what these girls want takes away everything that makes it special, ok?"

"Uhm, ok..." Ranma actually didn't understand what exactly Ami was playing at, but at least knew that he should better stay silent about that topic in public. _Maybe I should ask Mom what this sex-stuff is? If it is really as private as Ami says, then I don't trust Pop with it. _"Wonder if they still want me after ma curse gets out. It's not that I can hide it for long."

Ami knew what he meant. She had witnessed already two accidental transformations. The first time, she had spilled her soda on him, the second time had involved him forgetting to lock the window during a rainstorm. "You know some boys could then be after your girl side."

Ranma looked sick at the mere mention. "No way!"

Ami had no trouble to see that this had hit a sore spot. During the weeks she knew him, she hadn't seen him look angry. "You look angry. Had something happened that I should know?" she carefully asked.

Ranma had to control himself, while telling her what had happened. "Got splashed while getting something for Mom. Some guy called me a 'fine piece of ass'. I...almost lost it. Was only little away from ramming him into tha ground." This really had riled him up. It had upset him to no end. He pointed to his head. "In there I'm always myself... Don' know what actually angered me, but I felt disgusted and repulsed."

Ami knew exactly why Ranma had reacted like this. Although he was ignorant of it, he still had a sexual identity. And she strongly suspected that even in his girl form, he still was firmly heterosexually attracted to girls... only girls. Any males hitting on him would automatically set off the alarm bells. "Ranma, this is because in your mind you always are a boy. I won't explain it in detail, but he sent out signals that were intended for a girl, which only would disgust you as a boy. You have to learn to ignore these."

Ranma hadn't told her that this wasn't the first time. There had been various incidents since he got cursed. He hated it that his girl body had to look so damn cute. He had been told that he had to learn to accept it, since he would keep it for the rest of his life. But that didn't mean he would have to like it.

_At least there won't be sprung anymore surprises on me with that body... _

Yes, ignorance is bliss. But Ranma would learn very soon that a girl's body would need a little more maintenance than he knew. Would he have known what would happen in the next days and the embarrassing 'talk' that would follow, he probably would have fainted on the spot.

After all, with that body came the whole package, including the unpleasant aspects of being a girl...

* * *

_...meanwhile..._

"Paperwork... regardless in which time period, it will be always there," Setsuna sarcastically commented while looking through the papers that had landed on her desk.

She had chosen this job because it would allow her to always have an eye on the Senshi once they would start to awaken. Usagi and Ami were already present, Minako would arrive in some days, and Makoto was at the moment still at another school, though she surely would find a plan to get her transferred. She practically was the girl for everything in this school, despite her having only hired as school councilor.

Despite this, she actually liked her job.

Looking into the reflection of her window, she had to admit that she looked a little different to her senshi form. Especially her hair. She had learned fast that unlike the original time line, her meddling seemed to have vastly reduced strange hair colors. After getting strange looks because of her green hair, she had used her disguise magic to dye them black. And while strange hair colors still existed, they had become much less and more toned down.

Usagi's friend Naru for example still had red hair, but it was quite a bit darker now. Ami's hair was now a straight black, none of the blue color form the original timeline left. However, after seeing Usagi herself, who still was a blond, she concluded that there were always exceptions to the rule. Hopefully poor Michiru didn't have too much trouble with her aquamarine hair, which she did keep and looked really excotic.

Her escape actually had resulted in some really interesting effects.

Using her powers to look deep into space, she had been surprised to see that most of this Sailor XY-stupidity was simply non-existent. While there were alien races in the galaxy, there were only a handful of Senshi, no more. She had spotted the three Starlights living peaceful on their planet, protecting it. And she had caught glimpses of a child that somehow looked like Galaxia, sitting in front of something that looked like a TV, being busy with eating lollipops.

She knew it meant that this danger was nonexistent.

Other than that, her powers of sight had proven mostly useless, as if looking at a fog covering everything else. She knew, why: the future was constantly changing and now she was on her own, with her knowledge of previous timelines only being of limited usefulness.

_Well, Sailor Moon should awaken soon. It isn't long now. And when this happens, I need to approach her. No need to repeat the disaster of last time... _she thought_._

Thinking of her, it was interesting to see that thanks to being two years older, there were some changes in Usagi.

She still was somewhat of a crybaby but it had been toned down a lot with her getting older, although that didn't happen to most of her other negative traits. One of them was coming too late to school and bad grades. Ms. Haruna had openly complained that she hadn't transfered to teach at a high school, only to again being stuck with the most lazy girl she had ever seen since she'd started teaching.

Setsuna shook her head to get back on track. There was work to do.

Picking up the next folder, she saw that it was a transfer from a different school. "Akane Tendo... Furinkan High...ouch," she winced.

She knew of this mess, such news traveled fast in teacher and school circles. She couldn't fault the girl for attending a different school after going through this hell. She would have a talk with her first thing on her first day. She knew that this would be quite a bit of work to integrate her into the school life, but doing a good deed was worth it.

Making the needed notes, she picked up the next file. This time it was a request for a entrance exam for a boy named Ranma Saotome. Reading it, she grimaced when seeing this boy's school attendance records. _He will be lucky if he manages to get the minimum score to get into the grade corresponding to his age..._

She had never before seen such a bad and fractured school record. Reading some more about the background on his file, she wondered how irresponsible his father had been to allow this to happen. This was almost as bad as Princess Serenity's school record back in the Silver Millenium. Only the fact the she was the heir to the throne and pure blackmail from the Queen had kept her from failing school altogether.

At least this trait, Setsuna knew for sure, had awakened fully in Usagi.

_Some things never change... There will always be the ones who simply don't fit in, _Setsuna thought, while setting aside Ranma's file after marking the request, which was set for next Monday, as "approved".

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"Getting used to Minato"**_


	5. Getting used to Minato

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

Yay, Ranma experiences the unpleasant girl stuff. And the plot thickens...

**Note that this is the updated chapter, it is significantly better from the original one, as my writing skills have improved a lot over the years.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Getting used to Minato**

_Urgh... what a way to wake up. Note to myself: Don't eat something with too much sugar before going to bed, _Ranma thought when she woke up at the morning. She, because he had spilled something over herself and then was too lazy to bother and change back, since she knew sleeping as a girl didn't mean the end of the world after she had done it so often on the travel back to Japan

However, waking up with her lower body cramping together and her feeling like shit, that was something she wasn't keen of. It actually was painful, as if numerous needles penetrated her lower body. Grinding her teeth together, she grabbed a change of clothes before walking to the furo to prepare for the day.

"Urgh... If someone even mentions food, I have to throw up," Ranma groaned, while reaching the furo door.

She had never before felt like this, and it was annoying as hell. Closing the door behind herself, she stipped down... and stopped when she saw something in her boxers. Looking closer, she realised that it was red. It was blood. Ranma gulped, then looked between her legs and her eyes went wide in terror.

The nighbors would speak for weeks about the ear-splitting scream of panic that errupted from the Saotome house that morning.

* * *

_...some time later..._

_What in all names could be so important that Mrs. Saotome convinced my mother to excuse me from school and told me come at once because of an emergency? _Ami wondered, while walking down the way to the Soatome house. The whole thing puzzled her. _She was awfully vague, said only that Ranma needed me now._

It wasn't so dramatic for her to miss one day of school, especially since she was excused. However, she wondered what Ranma could want from her that his mother had taken this course of action. The whole thing was an enigma for her. But since she already saw the Saotome house, she decided to postpone these questions, as she would get answers soon enough.

She didn't have to knock on the door, as Mrs. Saotome already waited for her. Her face showed concern and a sort of helplessness that was intruiging. "Good that you are here, Ami. I'm at a loss what to do."

"No disrespect, but what is so urgent that I have to come at once?" Ami asked her, while coming in.

"Ami, you do remember our agreement that you teach him the facts of life and about the female body?" Nodoka asked her. Seeing a silent nod, she continued. "You can't postpone this any longer. Something happened this morning and I've barely managed to calm her down. She's still really scared and I can't find the nerves to explain it to her."

Now it dawned on Ami, why the urgency. "You mean she has a ...?"

"Yes. I hadn't thought that it would be possible. But right now Ranma has a period. Now she's frightened and confused and the comments from her father hadn't helped... The idiot only made it worse by calling her a weak girl." She didn't even try to conceal that she felt of Genma's comments as an insult against all woman.

Ami felt a headache coming up. Not only from the absurd situation of Ranma having a period, but also because of the pronoun-confusion surrounding Ranma. Ranma himself had said that he didn't care if it only reflected his current gender.

"All right. I'll help. Please try and get me the needed books with lots of pictures and try to keep your husband away from us," she asked.

"Don't worry about Genma. He is... indisposed after my training bokken made contact with his head for his stupid comments." Actually, Nodoka regretted doing that, because the wooden blade had broken on Genma's hard head. But it got the point across; Genma had feld the house.

Ami didn't even want to know the details. Walking up the stairs to Ranma's room, she carefully opened the door, only to see a miserable looking redhead sitting on the bed. Looking up, Ranma saw Ami. "Ami? Please don't come near me! I could infect you!"

_Oh kami! If he thinks that it is a disease, it's even worse than I thought! _Deciding that this warrented immediate action, she approached Ranma and took hold of her hand. "Ranma, listen! There is nothing wrong with you. What you are going through is perfectly natural."

"But... It hurts! And I've been bleeding... down there," Ranma stammered.

Ami knew she would need lots of patience now. "Ranma, I know this will be embarrassing for you, but girls go through this every month. That it happens only proves that ...eh.. your female side is fully functional, only with your curse screwing up the schedule a little."

Ranma's eyes widened when Ami's words sunk in. "All girls? But... it hurts... and the blood. You mean, you too...?"

Ami felt a slight blush. She would've never dreamed that she would discuss her periods with anyone after her mother had explained it to her a little over two years ago. "Yes, all girls have to go through it every month. And yes, I've been going though it as well. The first time always hurts but it becomes less with each time."

It had the desired effect of calming down Ranma, now that she knew that there was nothing wrong with her. But she was still humiliated that she right now was going through something 'all girls go through'. It didn't mix with Ranma's masculine self-image. But she also found new respect for Ami, since going through this every month... "But what the hell is that? Can't think of any reson why this happens."

Ami knew, now came the hard part. "Ranma, I'll be honest: You have a glaring gap in your upbringing. And after hearing what you father tried to pull, he must have been an idiot to keep you ignorant of these facts."

"Yeah, that sounds like Pop," Ranma snorted. She wondered what this could be, especially since Ami seemed reluctant to speak about it.

Ami took a deep breath. "Ranma, do you know the differences between males and females? And I mean the differences beyond the obvious ones and the biological reason behind it?" she openly asked him. Hearing no answer, she sighed. "I thought so. I'll be frank: this will be a really embarrassing topic for both of us, but you really need to know these things and your mother was close to having a breakdown at the mere idea the she could have to explain it."

"Uh..." Ranma all of a sudden felt that maybe being ignorant would be the better option, but she had no time to bail out, when her mother walked in with several books. _I don't like the look of that..._

o

Over an hour later, Ami sat at the kitchen table, nursing her mug of cacoa.

"That was like pulling teeth. Mrs. Saotome, have I told you that your husband is totally incompetent?" Ami asked Nodoka.

"Already several times, dear," she answered patiently.

"Thanks that you don't make a fuss about what happened. I remember too well when I had my first period. My mother said I am on my way to become a woman and cooked me the traditional first-period-meal," Ami thanked her. She didn't want to imagine how much worse it would have become otherwise.

"While I was brought up with traditional values, I'm not cruel. I would've deeply hurt his pride by doing this. Despite outer appearance, Ranma will always be my son," Nodoka reminded her. "I can see in his eyes how embarrassed he is of his curse, so I won't add insult to injury."

"I can imagine his embarrassment. Especially since he now knows all the workings of the female body..."

Ami felt that the previous hour had been one of the hardest of her life. She had been especially thorough in her explanations of boys and girls and the facts of life. She'd started with male anatomy, since Ranma was more familiar with it, then covered everything about females before coming to the hardest part: for what the different parts were for and everything related to it, including certain activities, ending with the topic of pregnancy.

It hadn't become easier for her when Ranma gave several comments like: "So that's why it gets hard.", "And that's why I bleed?", "And people really can do this with their hands as well?" and "I can't picture myself doing that.".

Right now Ranma was still upstairs, saying that he (after finally changing back) needed to think about all this stuff, leaving Ami to sit there with his mother. Truth to be told, after this morning Ami needed some alone time as well.

"You know, I couldn't have pictured myself giving anyone such a sex-ed crash course some weeks ago. Even though it was embarrassing, I sort of enjoyed it. Helping him is surely much better than how I spent my time before. I feel like I make a difference," Ami explained further.

Hearing this, Nodoka felt she should ask one important question. "Ami, what do you think of my son? How do you feel about him?"

Ami blinked. She could have sworn... naw, she couldn't mean that. "At first glance he looks like a rude meat-head. But looking closer I can see that is actually quite nice... in his own way. And he is smart but sadly doesn't use it for the right things. As for how I feel about him... I never had a real friend. I like being with him, and he does, too, since he wants to stay friends with me even after this week."

Nodoka knew not to read too much into it. So she put on a gentle smile. "You have found something that is rare these days."

* * *

_...some days later..._

"Gods, Ami! I can't take anymore. Please call it a day," Ranma pleaded for mercy. After the whole afternoon being filled with almost drill-like learning, he could literally see Kanji and numbers dancing before his eyes. "I can't concentrate any longer."

Ami knew what he meant with this. He needed some physical outlet for all the stress of learning. She had gotten used to him training off the stress after their lessons. He even had said that he saw it as a challenge to go through the stuff mentally while training. At least now that his period was over, things were back to normal.

It had been several hard days. Ranma had become quite irritable, even in his birth form. A fact that intruiged Ami, since there was no physical reason as he lacked the female anatomy causing it (Every physican would die for examining this phenomenen!). That, and Ranma coming to terms with what he had learned about both his forms had put a strain on his attention span.

"All right, this is all for today. I'm quite confident that you'll make it on Monday. Still, let's hear what you've learned while you work off the stress," she decided.

Only minutes later, Ranma was busy with going through his forms on the small training square outside, beating mercilessly on a padded wooden pole and fighting with an imaginary enemy, while saying alound what he had learned today. It was a challenge for him: to fight and go through his school stuff at the same time without losing focus on one of the two tasks.

_If he only had had a different upbringing... He could've been one of the best in school with his determination to master a task. I can only hope to salvage what's left and ready him for the task, _she thought, while mind-absently commenting on his re-counting of the lessons.

Ranma was barely breaking a sweat and Ami watched him going through the forms. Then she caught herself looking a little too intense at how the muscles of his bare upper body worked in concert, showing off how hard these muscles had become through all the training.

Ami shook her head. _What am I doing? I'm not some schoolgirl with a crush._

After all they were friends and nothing more.

What she hadn't noticed was, that Ranma was quite aware of her looks. After all he was observant of his surroundings while in battle-mode. He wondered why Ami seemed so interested in watching his bare upper body.

_No, it can't be any of this, _he decided, remembering the 'lessons' she had given him about boys and girls. A lot of the stuff was quite scary and he had a hard time to swallow some of the concepts. The recent days had been really bad. The whole period-thing had made him extremely irritated in both forms. He would have to try hard not to lose his focus so easy again, even though he had a good excuse with biological reasons.

Ranma still shuddered at the idea that his girl-body was fully capable of becoming pregnant, and the mere thought of how this could happen made him especially sick. He had also said so to Ami, who had commented that it proved that he had a firmly set male heterosexual identity, regardless of his current form. Meaning: regardless of his form, he only had eyes for girls. Ranma didn't know if he would ever be interested in a girl, although at least it meant that he wouldn't start to look after men.

Of course he had more questions and learned more. Some of it was really embarrassing, like when he finally knew why a certain body part tended to get hard and stiff and Ami barely managed to add that it's nothing bad to touch it, as many do it regulary. Ami had also added that numerous girls touch their own parts, something he couldn't wrap his mind around -and judging by Ami's blush, he didn't dare to ask further.

Coming back to his original thought, he came to a conclusion. _We're friends. Nothing more. Ok, she's really nice and looks quite good, but I don't think there is anything more..._

Wanting to distract himself from this, Ranma concentrated on something else, namely his muscles. It was good to get back into shape and also finally gave him time for something else: namely his girl-side and her lack of muscles.

He simply couldn't stand how much weaker his girl-side was, having next to no muscles from his perspective. He knew it would never be as strong as his male side, but alone to escape the cuteness-factor, he's started to get some buff as a girl to solve this problem.

_Nothing against girls with little muscle... Ami looks quite good the way she does..._ his thoughts again returned to her.

His thoughts hoever were interrupted when Ami asked him something. "Ranma. You are glowing... Oh, now it's gone. What was that?" she asked him, wondering. She by now had accepted that there would never be an answer to how his curse worked. But him faintly glowing, that was something new.

"Huh... Oh. Sorry I didn't tell you. Some side-effect of my training. Sometimes emotion comes through and turns into an aura around me," he explained to her. For him, it was only a nuisance that sometimes happened, a side-effect of his ki-training.

"Emotions you are aware of?"

"Or that I'm not aware of. It's like seeing inside me. So what color was it?" Ranma asked Ami.

Ami raised an eyebrow. "Is the color actually important?"

"Yeah. See, the color says which emotion it is. Blue is confidence, red is anger, green is depression and yellow is envy. That's the ones I know of," he explained to her. "Which one was it?"

Ami shook her head. "Um, none of these. The glow was actually pink. Any idea what emotion that is?"

Ranma almost choked. Glowing in such a girly color wasn't his idea of looking good. Good thing that only Ami had seen it. Trying to remember what he had thought about, he dismissed it. _Naw, couldn't be this. No way... _"Nah. No idea. Guess I'll have to wait for another time before we know what it is."

Ami accepted that. She had made her own ideas about the meaning of the color, but dismissed them. After all this simply wasn't possible.

* * *

_...Monday morning..._

Newspapers were many things, but for Genma Saotome it right now was a shield that protected him from his wife's looks. An old art that he put to good use, since she still hadn't forgiven him for his comments during the small crisis last week. He didn't think of himself as a coward, but sometimes it was better to avoid the line of fire. Even after all these years he had no trouble to read Nodoka's mood. And right now her mood was not on the positive side of the scale, at least when looking to him, so he felt defense was the best course of action.

The last week had been hard enough. Even in his birth form, Ranma had been irratable -no chance he wanted to ponder how THAT worked- and his wife had to break up a spar when Ranma was about to slam Genma's head into the ground. Genma remembered Nodoka once massacring her training dummy with her sword during her period, so in a spark of common sense he had declared there would be no sparring during that time of the month and he held firm on his decision despite Ranma's protests, surprisingly having his wife agree with him.

Seeeing Ranma preparing for his entrance exam a last time at the breakfast table, a part of him felt strongly that it was a waste of time, since after all, he made it to sensei without such a degree. However, a different part of his mind felt pride that his son had the ambition to hone his academical skills as well. But this spark was still insignificant, although it slowly grew.

The silence was disturbed when Genma found something in the newspaper, and snorted. "Heroine, yeah, sure... in that get-up..."

"Pop, what the hell are you talking about?" Ranma wondered when looking up from his book. Since he was distracted, his accent slipped back into old habits.

Daring to risk lowering his shield, he showed them the story on page 2. The prominent feature was a big, slightly grainy picture of a girl wearing a mask and something that looked like a perverted version of the sailor fukus he had seen schoolgirls wear. The skirt was so short, it looked ridiculous. The headline above it was : **"Sailor V has returned, foiling jewel theft!"**.

Ranma's eyes went wide. "Who is that? Can't think of _anyone_ wanting to walk around like this." He had a hard time not to laugh at the ridiculous outfit. He knew for sure that hell would freeze over before he would wear something like this in his girl-form.

Ganma snorted. "Some kind of local heroine... For me only a girl in a silly outfit."

"Don't judge her just by her looks," Nodoka interrupted him. "While I admit that her costume is totally unacceptable for a girl of her age, she has foiled numerous crimes. She has become quite famous."

Genma shook his head, before again hiding behind the newspaper.

Nodoka knew this behaviour all too well. He had exhibited it even before he had left, meaning that it was totally normal for him. After all, Genma wasn't a man known as too brave. But for now she had other things to do than taking offense at Genma's habits.

"Ranma. We have to go earlier so that we arrive far earlier than the beginning of the regular school day. Do you feel ready?" she asked him.

Ranma looked up from his book, quite confident. "I'll make it."

Real confidence.

A litte over a hour later, Ranma was far less confident. Sitting outside the office of woman who was right now busy with looking through his admittance exam, he felt that there was a real possibility that he could fail. The test had been difficult. Really difficult.

Looking to his mother, he saw that she didn't betray any emotion. He wished he could have her emotional control. Eyeing the bundle in her hands, he again felt his mother's pressure on him. She had already bought him some sets of school uniforms, a reminder that he shouldn't blow it. And she had one of these with her right now for him to wear, should he pass, together with a packed book bag and bento box.

Ranma felt indifferent to the uniform. It was neutral and comfortable enough. And in case he changed, he could wear it as a girl as well (with a special muscle shirt beneath the shirt, since that damn shirt was white and didn't mix well with water and breasts). He could live with it.

Finally the secretary told both of them to come into the office, so that Ms. Meiou could tell them the results.

Inside, they again met the woman who had explained the rules of the entrance exam and observed Ranma during it. She hadn't said much apart from that. She was tall (for a japanese woman), with really long, black hair and a no-nonsense look in her eyes that Ranma had read as intense concentration on a set task. But right now she was busy with looking at at his entrance exam in astonishment.

Ranma had the sinking feeling, that he hadn't made it, while they sat down and waited for her to acknowledge their presence.

Finally she looked up. "Mr. Saotome, I've seen many things in my life, but nothing like this." Letting him stew for some seconds she continued, "After reading your fractured school records I expected, really expected you to fail specteculary... Instead you managed to get the exact minimum score you needed... Care to tell me how this wonder comes to be?"

Ranma was too relieved to answer this question, so his mother did. "I have gotten him a tutor. This school's top student, Ami Mizuno."

Setsuna raised an eyebrow. She hadn't expected this. "Well, then she has done a good job, although I have to be clear: your son needs to improve a lot if he wants to manage finishing this grade."

Ranma's slight blush was answer enough. To be reminded of his shortcomings in his mother's presence was one of the things he found that got to him. Nodoka noticed this with statisfaction, knowing that it meant her son would also take school serious in the future. "If Mizuno-san agrees, which I think she will, she'll help my son in the future as well."

For the first time since they'd met her, a small smile entered the woman's expression. "Good. I'll do all the registration work. The secretary will show him the way to the locker room, so that he can change into his uniform, and then show him the correct class room. There is enough time for it before the first class starts."

Nodoka held up a hand, signaling there was something else to talk about. "Before you do so, there is something else you need to know. My son has a... condition." While she said that, she produced two thermos from the bundle.

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Mom, do we have to?"

"Remember, son, we want this right out of the way from the beginning, to stop any trouble from developing," she reminded him, before pouring some of the cold water on him.

Setsuna blinked, but otherwise tried hard to not let any surprise show when Ranma changed gender before her eyes, including a sudden hair color change to bright red. "Yes... this surely is an unusual...condition. You know this can cause some real trouble?"

Ranma shook her head. "Yeah. But I'll make it clear, should anyone even dare..." She felt she didn't need to finish the sentence.

"I think I'll ask your mother for all the details while you change and go to your class room. Then I'll notify the teachers of it," Setsuna said and then watched Ranma turning back with some of the contents of the other thermos.

She hadn't shown it, but the last minutes were really surprising for her, and that meant something for a woman who'd lived so many millenia.

The revelation that Ami Mizuno, the soon-to-be Sailor Mercury, was tutoring the Saotome boy was a surprise. In all previous timelines Ami had been reclusive until meeting Usagi. But this change she should have expected, since Ami was older as well, and maybe it would do her some good, as originally Ami had stayed single until the end.

No, the real surprise was Ranma's gender change. She wasn't surprised at the possibility, since she knew that magic was real and had witnessed gender changes with the Starlights in numerous time loops. The big question was, how he came into contact with such strong magic; a question his mother hopefully could answer, since such a source of strong magic was potentially dangerous.

The other surprise was the distinctive feel of chaos energy he radiated. A signature she knew only too well._ Looks like I'll keep a closer eye on you, Ranma Saotome. After all, you helped me to get free..._

* * *

_...the class room..._

"Class! We have a new student today," Ms. Haruna Sakurada announced to the class even before the roll call. Seeing that she had everyone's attention, she then looked to Ranma, who stood beside her. "Please tell the class a little about yourself."

He tried to not appear nervous. Having an entire room full with strangers watching him was new and uncomfortable, especially from that one boy with thick glasses, who seconds before had hid his face behind a laptop screen. He wasn't used to it. The only one he did recognise was Akane Tendo, who tried to conceal her surprise that he was in this class. It had to be one strange coincidence that both of them were in the same class.

Wanting this to be over as fast as possible, he faced the class. "Hi. I'm Ranma Saotome. I've recently returned from a longer trip and now want to catch up with my school work. I want to become a martial arts sensei in the future..."

The rest of his his drowned when suddenly the class door was yanked open and a blonde blur dashed in. He didn't notice Akane rolling her eyes as if this was nothing new to her at all.

"OHGODOGODOGOD! SORRY THAT I'M LAAAAAATTTTTEEE!" Usagi Tsukino had again woken up late and now was in a real hurry to make it before roll call. By now she was quite good at running to reach school in time. However, running was one thing, stopping was something totally different.

Unable to stop in time... "AHHHHH!" ...she crashed into the locker with the cleaning supplies. **-CRASH- **And of course Murphy's Law was ready to strike again. A partially filled bucked stood forgotten on that very locker, but now flew through the air and landing upside-down on Ranma's head, emptying its contents on him.

Ms. Haruna was ready to yell at Usagi for the mess -as if her usual tardiness wasn't bad enough- but stopped when noticing how silent the class was. Looking to Ranma, she saw that he seemed to have lost some height and gained... no, that had to be her imagination! No way he could have grown breasts all of a sudden.

Ranma felt like groaning. It seemed the curse was really out to get her. _Okay... Let's get over with this. No sense to delay it any longer now._ Taking off the bucket, she heard the whole class gasp when they saw her red hair and feminine face.

Her eyes turned hard when she faced the class. "Ok, listen up and listen good, 'cause I'll say this only one time!" The steel in her voice made everyone shut up and listen to her. "This is a magic curse. I turn into this with cold water. Warm restores me back to normal. Up here I'm still myself... And should anyone of you dare to do anything funny, and that goess especially for the locker room, then krrrrrrrrck!" To underline the threat she slowly pulled her finger over her throat.

Ranma was pleased to see the threat coming through, as a number of boys paled significantly, especially the nerd with the thick glasses. To her surprise, some of the girls paled as well. She didn't even want to ponder on what _that _meant. Pouring some of the warm water from her thermos over her head, he then looked to the blonde who had caused the whole scene and who now looked in pure confusion to him from the midst of the mess she'd created.

"I won't clean up this mess," he simply told her, before searching for a free seat.

Usagi Tsukino had no idea what the hell was going on. She only knew she should better scramble to her seat, since Ms. Haruna wouldn't stay in this state of confusion forever.

* * *

_...lunch break..._

"You know, you could've worded it a little nicer, although I don't mind you putting them into their limits," Akane told Ranma, while they walked out of the class room for their lunch break. While she barely knew him, he was the only one she could to talk to, as her other two friends had made a fast exit.

"Nah. If I learned one thing from Mom, then ta make everything clear right fromtha start," he waved it off. He knew that his change in front of the entire class had gravely disrupted the school day. Everyone in class had been speculating if this was a halucination, or real. But no one would dare to try and find out.

He himself had been called to the teacher's lounge between classes. The principal hadn't believed Ms. Meiou and gathered the teachers, to see if the story was true. After another change and change back, he made it clear that he didn't want special treatment and was capable to make sure, that no one would try something he or she would regret later. Apart from that, everything had returned to normal.

"Ya know, small world that we're in tha same class..." Ranma remarked, then looked her up and down. Although he'd gotten used to the seifuku by seeing Ami wearing it, seeing it on Akane looked strange. "And man, I'm glad I'm not forced to wear that. Looks uncomfortable."

"Not only you..." Akane muttered, while trying to adjust the sailor collar that came with the uniform.

She had at first balked when seeing that Juuban High had seifuku uniforms. She's last worn one in middle school and her old high school didn't use them any longer. She found them a little too frilly and somewhat stupid, but had to accept it. It could've been worse, like the uniform from that private school for girls in the neighborhood. She'd die from embarrassment if forced to wear a skir that short.

"Anything interesting happen during your time here?" Ranma asked, wondering if this school would be like his middle school with its regular bread fights.

Akane was about to reply, but stopped when two girls approached them, a blone and a redhead. She looked disappointed to them. "Where were you guys? I felt like you abandoned me on purpose."

Both of the looked as if expecting the other to answer. Finally the redhead took the initiative and answered the question. "Uhhh, sorry. But we had to talk..." She looked to Ranma. "We two wonder.. do you really...?"

Ranma sighed. "Yes, I really change sex. It's real and complete, as I learned the hard way last week."

All three girls blushed. They exactly knew what that meant and it was way too much information. Then the blonde found her tongue. "But... That's crazy! People can't simply change sex like this!"

"You know, I really want to believe you..." Ranma grumbled. He could very well live without it.

Akane felt that she had to salvage the situation. "Guys, you know Ranma's name already. Ranma, these are my two friends at this new school. The blonde is Usagi Tsukino and it's her family I stay with. The redhead is Naru Osaka, Usagi's best friend."

"Good to know you," Ranma geeted them. "After all the shit that happened, she can use friends."

Usagi was about to answer, when she remembered something. "I forgot! Ms. Haruna wanted to see me during lunch break!" In less then a second only a dust trail showed the exit of the blonde.

Naru laughed. "That's Usagi. She always forgets things but is really good at running."

Akane snorted. "She doesn't forget them. She's lazy." Seeing Ranma wonder what she meant with this, she explained. "We are total opposites on this. I take my school work serious and work out in my free time. She on the other hand ignores the work and enjoys too many sweets. I wonder why she still has a figure like this."

Ranma felt lost when the girls started to talk about diets. One painful discovery he'd made was, that once girls started to chatter, it'd quickly turn to things which would cause males to already wanted to make his escape when he saw someone approaching. Someone he knew very well.

"Ami? Over here!" he called.

Ami was pleasantly surprised to find Ranma wearing a school uniform, holding a bento box. She knew what it meant; he had made it. She felt a deep sense of statisfaction that all her hard work had paid off and felt a little pride at managing to enable Ranma entering the school.

"Ranma, you made it. I knew you have it in you," she congratulated him.

Ranma blushed a little. "Uhm, yeah. But only with the barest minimum score. Guess I still need your help."

"Oh, please don't be embarrassed. Considering your school record, you've done extremely well. And of course I help you. Friends are there to help each other..." She stopped when she felt the eyes of the other two girls on her. One of them had a striking resemblance to her, apart from the longer hair.

Ranma needed a second before his social training, done by his very patient mother, kicked in. "Ami, these are Akane Tendo -I already told you about her- and her friend Naru Osaka. Akane, Naru, this is my friend 'n tutor Ami Mizuno."

Akane greeted Ami friendly, but Naru gasped. "THE Ami Mizuno? The best student of the whole school? The one who's always at the first place in her grade?"

Now Ami looked embarrassed. She didn't like to be associated with being the best student of the school for obvious reasons. While she knew that good grades were needed, she didn't boast with them. "Yes, but please... I don't like showing around my good grades. I'm good, but there is always someone better," she answered humbly.

Akane looked a little lost, so Naru explained. "Ami Mizuno has been the best student of the school since she came here. Rumor goes she has an IQ of over 140. But next to no one knows anything about her. She's reclusive and only few even know what she looks like." Naru then looked to Ranma. "Really strange that you, who are so unlike her, became her friend."

Ranma shrugged. "Why strange? She's really nice once you see beyond the grades."

Of course Ami blushed some more when hearing these nice words. It was really something new for her that some actually complimented her as a person -and ot her grades- in front of others. Actually, it was something she could get used to.

However, they were interrupted when they had to step aside to make room for a girl walking by. A blonde who was followed by several admirers and held herself, as if she knew exactly that she was at the top of the ladder.

Naru shook her head when seeing the questioning looks. "Minako Aino. Came here almost two weeks ago. You saw her fan club. Something about her rubs me the wrong way. Some boys treat her like a princess."

Akane snorted. "I know that kind of boys. Creeps. The kind I don't want near me. And I also that kind of girls. Think since they look good, everyone kisses the ground they walk on."

Naru had to remind herself that Akane's opinion of the male gender wasn't the very best at the moment. "Maybe. But the girls tell me that she's as lazy as Usagi, and that means something."

Akane raisned an eyebrow. "I won't believe this, until I see it. You've never seen Usagi in the morning." She was interrupted when Ranma's stomach protested. "Oh, guess you need to feed the beast?" she asked him with a smirk. Since the whole engagement stuff was burried, she was much more relaxed around him.

Naru looked between the three while they walked outside. _I have the feeling that this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship..._

* * *

_...Thursday (May 25th)..._

Ranma thanked all gods that he had Ami. He knew himself too well and without her arriving every morning to accompany him to school, he propably would have come too late every day after Monday. It was funny, he got so used to Ami's presence that he took it as granted. She was proably the closest friend he had in all these years.

He used the time to look around. Most of the students were busy with their own stuff while waiting for Ms. Haruna, their English teacher, to arrive. Ranma grimaced, since he had next to no knowledge of English and was sure that he had bombed the exam they had had on Tuesday. However, for him it meant that instead of giving up, he had to try harder.

There were only three students in the class he knew by name. Akane, who he already knew from his visit at the Tendos, the redhead Naru, and the glasses-wearing geek who was called Umino. A fourth, namely Usagi Tsukino, was again absent. Ranma was dead sure that she would be late again, as Akane had told him that Usagi always got out of bed at the last minute. He had jokingly suggested to use a bucket with cold water to wake her up, as his father had done for years. To his surprise, she had answered that she would consider it.

There had been one guy who had dared to fondle Akane's ass during yesterday's lunch break. Ranma had to rescue him from Akane, who had been up and about to beat him into a pulp. Of course, afterwards she was pretty embarrassed that she had flown off the handle like that. A simple, hard slap would've been enough.

_Guy must have had a death wish to do that,_ he mused.

He also thought about the reactions to his curse. The news had started to circulate through the whole school by Tuesday. Many hadn't believed it until the moment where he got splashed during lunch break, forcing him to repeat his threat that if anyone should dare to do anything funny... They got the message and there were no further questions. It was again interesting that a sizeable number of the girls went as pale as the usual two thirds of the boys. Ranma could guess, why, after his crash course in sex ed, and it conjured pictures he found...interesting in a bizarre way.

_Who say that girls couldn't be perverts as well? There seem to be enough perverted girls at this school,_ Ranma silenly snorted.

Of course there was still the possibility that someone could overcome his fear and do something in the locker room after physical education, but it seemed his threat had been working. Neither in the locker room itself, nor under the showers had anyone tried to do anything funny.

_Good for them... _he thought, a second before Ms. Haruna entered and started the roll call.

The day then went on as expected.

Usagi came late and had to stay outside the class room. He had bombed the exam as expected, but at least he had a good excuse so his teacher only told him to learn after school to catch up. More funny was the scene when Ms. Haruna wanted to give Usagi her test, only to find her eating in the corridor. Of course Usagi said aloud her test result, a lousy thirty, a level so low that even he hadn't managed to reach it despite his lacking grasp of the language.

He had heard Naru muttering something in the lines of : "I think she'll never change...", meaning that this was no isolated incident.

The rest of the day went on without much excitement, so when the lunch break finally started, it found Ranma together with Ami sitting under a tree overlooking the school yard.

"Heaven forbid. That's a horrible score, Ranma!" Ami gasped, when reading the exam. She knew that his grasp of English was thin. But that it was **this **bad to get a lousy 48...

"Yeah... I propably won't hear the end of it from Mom. What a way to celebrate my first week here," Ranma sighed, then almost literally inhalated one of his sandwiches. "Funny thing is, I wasn't even the worst in class. That girl, Usagi, did even worse than me. A 30."

Ami rolled her eyes. "Well, that's no secret. Even I hear the rumors that she is propably the worst student at the whole school, although a 30 is a new low. Everyone wonders how she has made it so far. I don't know enough about her to have my own opinion."

"You don't. But I do."

Looking up, they saw Akane, bento box in her hand, standing there. "Oh, hello Akane. What brings you here?" Ami greeted the girl.

"Can I sit with you? No chance I'll be near Usagi today," she asked them.

Ranma looked to Ami, then back to Akane. "Uhm, yeah. But what's wrong with her?"

"Please!" Akane snorted, while sitting down. "She didn't stop wailing since she got her bombed exam back. She knows exactly that Mrs. Tsukino will give her hell for this. Don't get me wrong, Usagi is nice and easy to live with most of the time. But when she gets like this, I try to stay far away from her. Just look, there. Seems poor Naru is now next in line for it."

Looking to their right, they indeed saw Usagi complaining to Naru how unfair the grade was. Even Ranma had to admit that she was whining. It was at that moment that Umino joined in, resulting in even more complains from Usagi, since Umino was the best student of the class.

"This wouldn't happen if she would take her school work more serious. But she uses most of her free time to either read romance novels and fashion magazines, or to try getting a date, something which her mother told me she has failed spectecularly with up to now," Akane added. "I moved here to recover from all the shit I had to endure... I'm really not in the mood to hear the fantasies of a boy-crazy girl."

Looking again to Usagi and Naru, he noticed that now the both of them were exicited. "Looks like they're up to something." He barely managed to catch something about a jewely sale, before the girls left, chatting and ignoring Umino. A depressed looking Umino walked by them some moments later, muttering: "Usagi hasn't even looked at me..."

"Guess he more than just likes her," Ranma commented, before digging into his next sandwich. While he was still new to these things, something that obvious even he could spot.

Akane shook her head. "Then good luck. Listening to Usagi's unrealistic ideas of the man she imagines at her side, she will take nothing less than Mr. Universe. He has no chance with her." She then dug into her own lunch.

Ami had stayed silent during that exchange, as there was little she could say about this topic. Maybe she should try and get Akane a little better known? After all, Ranma managed to befriend her, and he wasn't known as the most social person.

_Maybe I can ask him about her on the way home. Funny that I walk with him to his home and help him with homework, instead of visiting cram school. Any yet I feel better than I did for months, _she thought.

Before meeting Ranma, she had been all on herself. Now that there was someone to spend her time with, she felt much better, more at ease. Deciding that she didn't want too much silence, she asked Akane "How did you manage at the exam?"

"All right, I guess. A 76 is nothing extraordinary. Not that I had much time to get used to what is taught in class. Why the interest? It sure isn't because of Usagi..." Akane stopped, when she saw Ami looking to Ranma, who stared to slightly blush. "Let me guess, he screwed it up as well?"

"He did, a 48, meaning that I will have to give him extra lessons for the next one after his mother sees it," she told Akane with a slight smirk. It seemed that she actually enjoyed helping her friend with school.

"Hey!" Ranma protested, "At least I'm not whining! I see it as needing to work harder on it." He didn't like how the girls spoke about him as if he wasn't even there. However, the only answer was some giggling from the girls.

Ranma shook his head. He turned into a girl, yet he didn't understand them at all. "I'll never understand females. Just this morning Mom was all bananas over a discount on jewels. Pop only said that the only jewely I should ever wear is a wedding ring."

"Your father has no sense for what a woman wants. I gathered that much from him, especially since he sold _his _wedding ring to a pawnshop." Ami would never say it, but Genma Saotome hadn't impressed her very much. In many aspects, Ranma took clearly after his mother.

"How do you know of that story?" Ranma asked her. Even he had had no idea that his father had done this.

"Your mother told me during a rant. And let's say, I never want to be on her bad side. She can be really scary when she gets riled up," Ami explained to him.

"Ranma, can I ask you something?" Akane asked him, after swallowing her lunch.

"Sure, shoot."

"I need someone to spar with. Daddy didn't want to do it since I was eleven and just repeating the moves brings me nowhere." Frustration was clear in her voice that she had been stopped in her tracks of becoming better.

Ranma looked sceptical. He didn't like to hurt a girl, even if accidently. Of course that didn't mean he wouldn't fight them, he learned his lesson. Although he had no trouble to see that Akane was really tough. "Why not these guys in the martial arts club? They sure pestered me often enough to join them."

_And I declined because I don't want to hurt their feelings. I know it's no fun to be totally outclassed... _he silently added

Akane snorted. "Please! Half of the boys would only want to stare at my butt. The other half and all the girls would be massively outclassed. You're the only one who is available, because after what your father told me, I won't ever ask him for it."

Ranma remembered the lesson of one sensei. He should never discount a girl's abilities. That was something his father had never learned. "I'll think about it, alright?"

Akane knew, she couldn't expect much more at the moment.

* * *

_...at the same time..._

There was a place, lacated in the frozen wastelands of the deep north, where no sunlight ever shyed away the darkness. A place so tainted by evil, that even the mere stone of the walls radiated its evil nature, suffocating any kind of goodness. Not even the brightest light could penetrate the wall of sheer malice surrounding this place. Hidden away from everyone on the planet, it was shielded by strong magics to be completely undetectable.

This was the Dark Kingdom.

Its ruler, Queen Beryl, a red-haired woman with an unnaturally yellow skin, sat in her throne, facing her subjects, the Youma. The crowd was uneasy while they watched their queen going through the latest reports in her crystal ball. Ever since the breaking of the seal and their re-awakening, Beryl had almost been obsessed with this artifact, propably because so many millenia ago it had been their downfall. She'd become frustrated with their limited resources; and an angry Queen Beryl was dangerous for her subjects.

She then finally looked up, not all too pleased.

"You can't find the Silver Crystal? You still haven't found it despite all the efford you put into your search?" she adressed the Youma, clearly displeased.

"No, your majesty," they answered, fearing that they could anger her.

However, she didn't seem to be too angry with this development. "Really? Kunzite! Zoisite! I want a report," she ordered.

Said two generals appeared before her throne. Both were humans wearing a grey uniform, also not all too eager to face their queen while she was propably displeased. However, that risk came with the job, so they faced it.

"We regret to inform you that we still have no clue to the Silver Crystal's whereabouts, Queen Beryl. The sources are scarce and conflicting," Zoisite reported. She was a rather tomboyish looking woman, wearing her light brown hair in a ponytail.

"Yes, it is really difficult to track, like a needle in a haystack. Please give us more time to sort out all leads we have," Kunzite, a man with white hair and wearing a cape of the same color to his uniform, added.

"What can be so difficult with finding the crystal?" Beryl demanded to know, feeling impatient.

"It is impossible to detect the magical signature of the Silver Crystal. While we know it no longer is one the Moon, it is hidden from our sight, so we have to gather clues about what happened to it," Zoisite explained to her queen.

"It is entirely possible that it was seperated into several smaller pieces, thus deactivating its signature. Queen Serenity really hid it well," Kunzite added, hoping that his queen would accept their explanation why they'd made so little progress. "Also, the disturbances from this so-called princess -who I think by now is an imposter- doesn't help."

"Very well, proceed with your task. This imposter, whoever she is, is of little consequence for now, despite her disturbance of our activities. However, I expect results soon..." As soon as she'd said that, Zoisite and Kunzite vanished. She then again turned her attention to the crowd. "For the time being, I call you off from the search. Since you can't find the crystal, we need to drain the energy of people in the meantime, since our great Master needs big amounts of it for the reawakening."

"Queen Beryl." Another general appeared. A young man with blond hair. "Please allow me to fulfill this task. My slave, the evil Morga, has already set up everything to drain part of the needed energy."

The queen seemed pleased that everything already had been taken care of. "Very well, Jadeite, you seem to be eager to prove yourself to me. Proceed as you have planned."

"I thank you, my queen," Jadeite answered with an evil smirk. This was his chance to prove himself.

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"First Encounter"**_


	6. First Encounter

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

Well, finally the first confrontation. Sorry if there isn't that much character stuff, but I had to squeeze a lot of exposition into this chapter. I'll put in more character moments in the next one.

**Note that this is the updated chapter, it is significantly better from the original one, as my writing skills have improved a lot over the years.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: First Encounter**

Nodoka Saotome couldn't believe it. She had gotten that ring for such a low price! That wasn't even longer a cuthroat price. It was as if the shop owner was desperate to get rid of these jewels. Despite the huge number of woman in the shop, she'd managed to buy a really nice piece of jewely. It was perfect to show Genma that he had to start searching for a real job -after all he WAS an certified instructor for the arts- to earn them money, if he ever wanted to give her something like this.

Psychology was everything, and if she ever wanted to get Genma to be more than just a grunt worker, she'd have to make it clear to him in serveral ways that she was not pleased with his current line of work.

Leaving the Osa-P jewelry shop, Nodoka had no eye for the two girls entering the shop at the same time.

Naru and Usagi had expected it to be full, but not like this. Then they saw Naru's mother walking through the crowd, speaking loudly. "Look around for any pieces you like. A ninety percent discount on the special stash is guaranteed!"

Naru shook her head. "I hope Mom doesn't plan to do this often, or she'll go bankrupt." She had no desire to become homeless because her mother had suddenly decided to go crazy.

"Yeah... she's normally much more calm than this," Usagi added, knowing that Mrs. Osaka usually was a much calmer woman, before they tried to get through to her.

However, the woman they thought of as Naru's mother wasn't even a woman at all.

A small, cruel smile crept up Morga's lips while she watched the woman looking at the 'special merchandise', buying it as if there would be no tomorrow. The human greed was still as she remembered. It had been laughably easy to lock the real Mrs. Osaka into the basement last evening and put all the special jewels into display. She only had to avoid the little brat, as she already had annoyed her as hell this morning.

_Foolish humans... _she thought, while watching the trails of life-energy being sucked into the jewels and then to her commander. _Go on and waste all your energy for our great Master._

In an empty apartment not too far, the results of the jewels took form, when a blue-glowing sphere of energy appeared over Jadeite's hand, thin trails of energy feeding it in order to make it grow bigger with each moment. He could feel the strength of the people they were draining in the sphere over his hand, it made him feel powerful.

A smile crept up his features. _These fools are gravitated by the jewels. They don't even notice that we drain their energy this way... Queen Beryl will be most pleased._

It had been a really great idea to grab this assignment. It was an easy way to rise in the favor of his queen. The other three always showed off that they stood above him, a fact that didn't sit well with him or his ego. Especially Zoisite left no chance to annoy him, while Nephrite acted as if he was nobility. And no chance he'd come near Kunzite.

Now was his chance to show off and rise on the carreer ladder in the Dark Kingdom, proving to the others that he was better than them. Getting his queen's favor would be most useful to accomplish this goal. Yes, Jadeite was really pleased with himself and taking this assignment before Nephrite would become aware of it..

Watching the sphere slowly grow, he laughed. "Continue, Morga. Drain all of their energy!" he commanded her over their link.

* * *

_...Saotome house, very late afternoon..._

The sun was already very low on the sky, casting Tokyo in orange light.

It was really peaceful in the Saotome house. Genma sat in the family room, watching TV, ignoring Ranma and Ami. Ami was right now busy with helping Ranma at his homework, a task that was a challenge in itself. After all, despite all his progress, he still wasn't that good at school stuff. Unlike others however, he admitted that much and actively asked her for help about things he didn't understand.

She also hoped that she could lessen the blow of Ranma's really bad grade for Mrs. Saotome. He didn't show it, but he obviously was embarrassed about showing it to his mother, feeling like a failure after having promised her to do his best.

Apart from that, Ami hadn't felt that good in a long time. Learning all by herself had lost all of its charm for her, seriously damaging her enthusiasm for it. But to actually help someone with all this knowledge made her feel real good. She felt that now her learning new things had a purpose by using it to help someone else to catch up with everyone else.

And apart from that, she liked being around Ranma.

She had no one else who she could talk with about trivial things that would bore grown-ups. Sure, Akane and Naru were nice, but she didn't see them that often. Ranma made no secret of it, that he had no idea about most of the stuff. But he was willing to listen and on occassion he asked about something that had caught his interest. After all, it would take time for him to develop an actual social life after all these years of social isolation.

He still had some really bad habits, especially his arrogance concerning his martial arts skills. But she reminded herself that everyone had some flaws, herself included. Ranma was a good person at heart, he wanted to be. He just needed the guidance to find the right path -meaning the right guidance and not what his useless father had shown him 10 long years.

Ami's musings were cut short when she heard the front door open, signaling the return of the lady of the house. Her "I'm home!" then confirmed it.

It was several minutes later when Nodoka entered the family room. She gave Ami and Ranma an approving look when seeing them being busy with school work. Seeing these two being busy with school work was always good. Then her eyes spotted Genma and she frowned. He looked far too much like the clichè of the husband in front of the TV.

_What happened to the man I married? _she again wondered.

True, Genma himself had warned her that his cruel master's training had tainted him, but she had not believed him that it could be this bad. However, Genma had really changed much to the worse. Well, she would have enough patience to correct all this.

_Time to give him an reminder what I expect from him... _she decided. "You won't believe what I found in a shop today," she announced, showing off her ring to everyone. A ring which's most prominent feature was an emerald. "It's too bad that I it wasn't you who bought it for me, Genma," she added.

It definitely had the intended results. While Ami looked in awe at the ring and Ranma, while not knowing much about jewels, let out a small whistle when seeing the size of the emerald, Genma looked downright embarrassed. The message was clear, he should try to finally get a better-paid job. Nodoka allowed herself a small smile. It had worked.

Her smile however vanished, when she felt dizzy all of a sudden.

"Mom, are you all right?" Ranma asked in worry, noticing that all of a sudden his mother seemed to be rather weak on her legs.

"It's nothing, I..." She didn't manage to say more when most of her strength all of a sudden left her, causing her to collapse on the floor.

"MOM!" Jumping up, he ran to her side. She seemed barely awake and her ki was, he could clearly feel it, dangerously low. "What's wrong?"

Genma meanwhile was really surprised at how concerned he'd become when seeing his wife collapse on the floor. But at the same time his danger sense kicked in. Something was definitely wrong. Concentrating,, his eyes widened when he faintly saw the trails of ki being absorbed by the jewel.

"Hey, Pop, what...?" Ranma started to protest when his father quickly took the ring off Nodoka's finger. He started to become angry that his father would steal from his mother. But then his eyes widened when Genma threw the ring to the floor and it turned into dust. "What the hell?"

"Boy, I obviously was too lax in your training, otherwise you would've seen it yourself," Genma grumbled in disappointment, while picking up his wife. "That thing drained her ki. I get her to bed. You find out where she got it. We speak later about your shortcoming."

Ranma blinked, while watching his father taking his mother to the bedroom. He didn't remember the last time he had seen him this dead serious and no-nonsense-like. Shaking his head, he felt anger growing. Obviously someone had done this to his Mom, and he would make them feel sorry for it.

"Any ideas, Ami?" he asked his companion.

"Knowing your mother, she could still have the receipt... After all, that thing must have cost her quite a sum," Ami suggested. The whole situation confused her. Jewels that drain ki? She couldn't make any sense of it.

She'd barely finished when Ranma ran out of the room, then returned with his mother's purse. He hated to do that, but he needed answers. Opening it, he thankfully found a receipt right on the top, thus relieving him from the task of searching through it. Putting the purse on the table, he read the receipt. "Osa-P jewelry shop... Juuban shopping district."

Ami gasped. "Naru's mother owns it! Naru mentioned that to me."

Ranma didn't want to believe that Naru or her family had a hand in this. On the other hand, his mother got that ring from their store. "I'll find out whatever happened... And whoever did that will be sorry," he snarled, before running out of the front door. He was very protective of his mother and hurting her was the best way to get him pissed.

Ami sighed while she watched him vanishing in the distance. "With the head through the wall... I hope he will be all right..." She was still wondering what exactly had happened, but decided that she propably wouldn't get any answers until tomorrow.

_Life doesn't get boring with him. Good thing that I'm a boring, normal person who won't gravitate trouble..._ she thought.

A good thing she didn't know the truth yet -that her life would soon take quite a turn to the strange.

* * *

_...at the same time..._

Usagi Tsukino -right now known as Sailor Moon- knew clearly by now that this wasn't her day, while jumping over the rooftops of the Minato ward -a feat she would've thought impossible mere minutes ago.

Her bad day had started with her coming too late to school, then being caught eating on the corridor by her teacher and shown her totally bombed English exam. Her visit to Osa-P had been a total disappointment, with her being unable to buy even the very cheap special stock. To add insult to injury, she then had bumped into a jerk of a college student while again looking at her exam and he had made fun of her grade.

It had continued at home. Her mother had been very angry with her and without Akane speaking on her behalf, her mother would have locked her out of the house for several hours. Nonetheless Ikuko had given her the credible threat of forcing her into cram school -a nightmare for her. Shingo had decided right then to rub salt into the wound by declaring her to be a total idiot.

All this already had ruined the day, but what had followed after that...

_Everyone would think I'm bonkers and lock me into a rubber room..._

How else could someone react to the story that a talking cat named Luna appeared all of a sudden in her room -the same cat she had rescued earlier that day- and babbled about evil and her destiny? At first she'd thought she'd gone crazy, until she remembered that they had an aquasexual in their class. Compared to that, a talking cat was almost normal.

However, what had followed had almost made her flip out.

She didn't actually want to know where Luna had kept the brooch she's given her, one of these things you don't want to know. Luna then had coaxed her into using that thing... She'd thought to humor her by chanting the silly phrase, when suddenly it had happened. She'd felt embarrasingly naked for two seconds, before being put into something she'd wouldn't have worn otherwise. End result: magical girl Usagi, called Sailor Moon.

And then again, the costume... She'd worn some really daring clothes on her attempts to get a boyfriend, but this thing was simply obscene. The skirt, if you could call this short thing one, did nothing to cover up, meaning every movement caused her to flash her panties. She essentially was a living panty-shot. The rest of the costume looked something a 8-year old girl would imagine.

She had been about to die from embarrassment, when suddenly she had heard her friend Naru crying for help.

Luna had said that she'd be a bad heroine without knowing where to help, so the jewels in her hair acted as sound amplifiers. She then had told her to get her ass into motion at once and help her friend. This was where she was now, jumping over rooftops to reach Osa-P, blushing the whole time over her perverted uniform.

In a way she felt it was stupid just to run head-first into danger, as she had absolutely no idea what to do. On the other hand, if Naru was in danger, she had to help her friend. One way or another, she wason her way.

_The cat said there would be an explanation later... I hope it's good, or she's cat food!_

o

As fast as Sailor Moon might be, Ranma was even faster in his anger.

He was a fast runner naturally, but right now his anger over someone daring to hurt his mother was giving him an extra boost. He had grown very protective of her, although he did admit that she was very capable of defending herself. Finally he saw the store front of the jewelry shop and to his surprise, the door was open. Looking in, he was taken aback by what he saw.

The store was littered with unconscious customers, and... there was some... thing... that looked remotely female, and it was choking Naru!

Finally Ranma got over his surprise and remembered that he should better help Naru. "Let her go!" he shouted, only to regret it insantly when that thing turned its head 180° to look at him. It was a disgusting sight and its face even more distgusting than the rest of it.

"Foolish human, better run before you regret interfering in my matters," it told him with a cold smile that told him a lot. This thing obviously wouldn't go down without a fight.

"Either you let her go or I'll make you do so!" he threatened, getting in position for a quick strike. That thing was clearly not human, and after some bad run-ins with such stuff in the past he was very careful.

"Oh, you want a fight?" It simply let go of Naru. The gasping girl quickly scrambled to the sidelines to avoid being in the line of fire. The thing then turned around, bringing its head back on line with the body. "You are really foolish to want that. Know that it is Morga of the Dark Kingdom who will be your death."

"You talk too much!" Jumping up, Ranma kicked that thing into the chest, slamming it against a pillar. It looked stunned for a moment, but then recovered almost instantly. "What the hell...?"

"Fool!" Obviously that made her real angry. "Die!"

He had expected her to attack, but he didn't expect her arms suddenly becoming really long, as if made of rubber, while her hands shot forward. He was surprised for one second, which was one second too much when the clawed hands closed around his throat. Choking, he tried to peel the clawed hands off, but to no avail, and that thing started doing something to him, causing his ki to go into chaos.

"Your energy will be most welcome for..." Suddenly Morga's eyes went wide. "No! Stop! Too much!"

Ranma felt his strength return in one sudden rush, before a small explosion blew the two apart. A slightly singed Morga shook her head while getting up. She'd made a mistake. That boy had so much life energy that her attempt to harvest it had overloaded her. It HURT! Looking with murder in her eyes to him, she was about to try and rip him to pieces to old fashioned way, when she noticed another newcomer.

"Do not lay a hand on him, villan!"

Having finally gotten rid of the dizzyness after whatever this Morga had tried to do, Ranma looked to the door, only to see... He wondered if this district was turning into a madhouse. First a monster and now a girl in something that looked like something straight from a magazine for schoolgirl fetish he'd seen some students read.

The one thing he knew was, that no force in the world -not even the threat of torture and death- could ever make him to wear something like this in his girl-form. He'd rather commit suppuku than putting on this... thing.

"Oh, and who are you supposed to be?" Morga asked sarcastically, while studying her new opponent, who looked so ridiculous... But there was something else she reminded her of...

"I'm Sailor Moon. And in the name of the Moon, I shall make you sorry for what you did here!" Usagi knew that she had been about to say a corny speech, some strange urge almost her made her do so. Only at the last second had she managed to not do it and get to the point.

Finally it clicked for Morga. Now she remembered where she'd seen this ridiculous outfit before. "A Sailor brat? Master Jadeite will be most interested about this information after I've dealt with you. But say, are you also so eager when the odds are seriously against you...?"

"What?" Sailor Moon suddenly noticed all the customers getting up, their looks blank. They acted like zombies. "Oh damn!" Now she knew she was in trouble, no way she could attack innocents, and even if she did, it were too many! "No, please! Stay away, don't do this!"

"Wail as much as you want, I meanwhile have other things to do..." Morga then turned her attention back to Ranma... only to recieve a fist straight into her face that made her stumble. "You damn brat!" she snarled ans swiped her claws.

Jumping away to gain distance from the sharp claws, Ranma decided right then that this thing was toughter than it looked. Seeing that these claws could easily shred him to pieces, he decided to get her riled up -after all this always worked to get opponents to make errors. "Normally the code prohibits me from crippling moves... but there was nothing in the rules about monsters. That, and you're mostly hot air!"

This wise-ass brat really made Morga see red. "Stay still so that I can shred you to pieces!" she cursed, but obviously Ranma had learned his lesson and this time managed to avoid her trick with the lengthening arms.

"Do I look that stupid?"

Avoiding another claw-swipe, he hoped that this Moon-girl would manage without him. Even though he talked big, he had his hands full with this thing and couldn't help this strage cheerleader right now. Kicking Morga hard into the head, he was unpleasantly surprised when the effect wasn't that great. Monsters were obviously made of much sterner stuff than he'd thought.

He prepared for a harder strike, when suddenly...

**-krrraiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-**

This annoying sound suddenly filled the store, irritating him. To his surprise Morga seemed to be in great pain, screaming, while all the zombified custumors fell to the floor. That revealed the scource of the sound: Sailor Moon screaming in terror, the two round jewels in her hair glowing white, amplifying her screaming into a paralyzing noise. When it finally stopped, all the innocents were again unconscious and Sailor Moon looked in wonder at what she had done.

"Oh, you..." Morga knew she shouldn't have underestimated a Sailor-brat, not after all the trouble she'd heard from the Dark Agency. Then came confusion when suddenly a rose impaled itself in front of her into the floor.

"Hold, fiend!" Everyone looked up to see a man wearing a tuxedo with a cape and top hat, his upper face concealed by a mask, stand in one of the windows. "I'm Tuxedo Mask. I know Sailor Moon will be victorious in defeating you since I have confidence in her, villan!"

The speech went on for some moments and Ranma shook his head. _Is this guy for real? Now it's official, this ward IS becoming a madhouse, _Ranma decided right them, having enough of this insanity.

Ranma promptly ignored him as he saw an opening. Morga was still distracted and Sailor Moon seemed to listen to someone he could not see. Taking the chance he aimed a sharp flying kick directly at Morga's spine. That was a move that would seriously cripple, if not outright kill a human being. However, after his ineffective strikes, he knew he had to resort to his lethal moves to make a dent into this monster.

After all his wasn't a contest. It was a life-or-death situation.

**-CRACK!- **"AHHHHH!" That was the only thing Morga managed to get out when her spine broke with a sickening crack.

However, landig some distance away, Ranma had no time to ponder over this when he had to jump away. He had seen in the last second Sailor Moon throwing some weird, glowing diskus towards Morga. It missed him barely,...

...but Morga was not so lucky. It cleanly sliced off her head and even before her body fell to the ground, it dissolved into dust.

o

Jadeite was impressed with the amount of energy harvested, but suddenly the sphere glowed white for a second before it fizzled out, all the energy returning to its original owners. Jadeite needed some seconds before realising that it meant his plan had failed and Morga, the link between the source and the gathered energy, had been destroyed.

He was REALLY disappointed, especially since this meant to return to Queen beryl empty-handed, a serious embarrassment after telling her that it would be easy to get the needed energy. He could already see the other generals laughing at him over this failure.

"Morga... you failed. How stupid of you," he growled in annoyance.

But then he thought about it. What could be strong enough to destroy a Youma? Sure, enough brute force could do it, after all Morga had been an infiltrator Youma, not a warrior. Inflitrators were more easy destroyed. However, he had a suspiction that there was more behind this.

"Hm, could it be?" Teleporting to a roof overlooking the entrance of the jewelry shop, he waited. He did not want to return to Queen Beryl with empty hands. Knowing the reason for his failure, the identity of the person interfering into their matters, at least lessen the blow. The shame without anything to offer would be simply too big.

o

Ranma now was sure that Minato ward was turning into a nuthouse.

After all the fighting was done, the tuxedo-guy had given Sailor Moon some corny parting words before making a fast exit. Sailor Moon however was too busy with admiring him, despite the fact that this guy had only thrown a rose and made a pose. Once again Ranma knew that while he turned into a girl, he'd propably never understand them.

While helping Naru up to her feet, he wondered how anyone could spout such horrible speeches (something he wouldn't wonder if he'd ever met Kuno). Also he didn't want to think about Sailor Moon's costume, that thing was simply embarrassing, and she'd flashed him her panties already at least a dozen time.

Looking up, he saw her approaching him.

"Thanks, I don't think I would've made it without you today," she told him. Truth to be told, Usagi was sure she would've been creamed without Ranma. What made her wonder was, that she saw no recognition in his eyes, as if she was a total stranger.

"Uh...ah, no problem. It's a martial artist's duty to help the weak," he told her uneasily, her costume having an effect on him that made it difficult to concentrate. While he was a little troubled at what he had to do, the fact that he had saved everyone else with it quietened any doubt. There was also this strange, faint feeling as if he knew who she was.

"You know, uh... this thing is real revealing..." he added, internally berating himself for saying something this stupid.

Sailor Moon blushed when being reminded of her short skirt, tugging at it to see if it could become any longer. "I had no choice... I... look,... still thanks. But I must go..." Sailor Moon then ran away very fast. It seemed that she didn't want to talk about it. Ranma and Naru looked perplexed for a moment over this aprupt exit, but then shugged it off. Too much weirdness had happened that this would upset them.

Looking around, Naru noticed that all the special-stock jewels had turned into dust. She could've written all of this off as a bad dream, if not for the all too real scratches on her neck. "I have no idea what had happened, and maybe I don't even want to know. You know, you're quite calm over all this."

"Don't let this fool you. I might look calm, but that is only on the outside. I'm real pissed that she'd dared to drain my Mom and tried to strangle you. She shouldn't have done that," he told her.

He didn't show it, but despite showing a calm outside, the sight of the monster had scared him a little. That it had shugged off blows like this... he had never before seen anything like that. Of course it wasn't in league with these horrible cat-things, nothing was.

Hearing him speaking of his mother reminded her of something. "Oh... I better free my mother from the basement before I call the police... Uhm, Ranma, can you help me getting her out? I also think the police wants to ask you questions; after all you are a witness as well."

"You bet I stay. No way I leave now while there could be more of these things near by."

Walking to the stairs, they didn't have an eye for the fact that the decorative potted plants inside the shop had grown quite a bit during the minutes in which Naru's life had been in mortal danger. It was a detail they wouldn't have understood anyway.

They also didn't notice the strange blond man vanishing from a rooftop after witnessing Sailor Moon leaving the shop.

* * *

_...Tsukino home, later that night..._

"Okay...okay!... None of that stuff had been a dream. I really turned into a superheroine in a microskirt and killed a monster after Ranma crippled it. There was really this hunk in a tuxedo and Naru had been in real danger... And right now I'm sitting on my bed in my pyjamas, looking at a talking cat named Luna... And I'm not crazy," Usagi ranted, trying to come to terms with everything that had happened to her in the last hour.

"You know, it is a great honor that you were chosen. You could show a little more enthusiasm," Luna told her, wondering if this girl really had it in her to become a real Senshi.

"If it's so important, why not tell me why I have to do all this? I want to be a normal girl, I never asked for this," she snarled at Luna.

"Being angry at me won't help." Luna waited until Usagi seemed content to listen to her. "As for the why, I will try to tell you... but I have some memory gaps, you must know."

"Then perhaps I can be of help..."

This voice startled Usagi so much that she almost jumped against the ceiling. Falling back on her bed and almost crushing the poor Luna who managed in the last second to jump away, she finally saw the source of the voice. A woman with long, dark-green hair, wearing another of these embarrassing uniforms, only her skirt and collar were both black, holding an interesting staff formed like a big key with one of her hands.

"Who.. who are you?" Usagi asked unsure, wondering how this woman had appeared in her room like this. Luna obviously would be no help since the mooncat looked more confused, as if there was something she should remember.

"Do not be alarmed, Usagi Tsukino, Senshi of the Moon, I am on your side," she tried to assure the girl. "My name is Sailor Pluto, and like you I am one of the nine warriors tasked with protecting this world. I'm here to help you in your difficult task."

Luna looked sceptical to her. "I can't really remember a Sailor Pluto... but then, I can't remember lots of things. Still... some proof would be nice."

Pluto had expected this. After all she hadn't given them much to work with and some token of trust was needed. "Alright. Look into the orb..." she said, showing the red orb at the top of her staff to Luna.

Luna did exactly that and the red glow from the orb stirred her memories. Pictures of meeting the reclusive guardian of time in the Silver Millenium came up. After some seconds, the light vanished. "She is indeed who she claims... It should be safe to trust her."

Pluto was pleased. "Very well, there are two persons waiting for us, one you will clearly recognise... Sailor Moon, please transform before we go, you can't go untransformed."

Usagi let out a loud sigh. It seemed that she would have to get used to this transformation business. It still spooked her a little, but at least it was totally painless. Actually, the thing that she had the most problem with was that damn microskirt. Hopefully this Pluto person could help her with that. But then again, she also had one of these skirts, which was a bad sign. Hopefully, she at least would be told what the hell was going on...

Meanwhile in a different place, another girl was waiting.

"Seriously, Artemis, why did she insist that I wear my Sailor V disguise? It's not that my ID as Sailor Venus is a big secret to her," Venus wondered, while waiting in this misty, strange place for Pluto to return.

Pluto had told her that they needed to talk, but she had no idea why they were waiting right now. Actually, little went according to plan. The dark forces didn't show themselves and she hadn't made any progress in fanding the other Senshi. The only thing that went according to plan was Pluto again getting into contact with them.

Artemis sighed. Sometimes, Minako really wasn't that observant. "If you'd listened, you would know that she wants to bring someone else here..."

"Don't talk to me as if I'm an airhead..." she growled an answer.

Thankfully Artemis was spared from hearing more denials, when Pluto finally returned together with someone else. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw the black cat in the arms of the person appearing together with Pluto. "Luna? Is that you?"

Luna did recognise the white mooncat. It had been a long time, and by the looks of it, Artemis was still carrying a torch for her. However, before she could get out a word...

"GOSH! YOU'RE SAILOR V! OGODOGODOGOD, YOU'RE FAMOUS!"

Minako had no idea what to think when suddenly another Sailor Senshi turned into a total fangirl. She wondered if that girl would even ask for her autograph. Thakfully, the girl backed off after Pluto knocked her staff several times hard on the ground, giving Moon a serious look of annoyance. The grown-up woman waited for silence, before she finally spoke.

"I think I should do the introducions. Sailor Moon, this is the warrior you know as Sailor V, she also fights for the planet Venus. Sailor V, this is Sailor Moon, one of the warriors you look for. The white mooncat is Artemis, and yes he is really male, despite the name. The black mooncat is called Luna. They both know each other quite well." Pluto put a suggestive tone into the last sentence.

Both Senshi looked down to the two mooncats. They both felt that there was something more behind these words than what they said. It didn't help that Luna and Artemis seemed quite... happy to see each other.

"So this is the Luna you told me about. The cat you have a big crush on," Venus finally said, giving Artemis a big smile.

"NO! We don't...!" Luna shouted while hopping down to the floor, then stopped and felt all eyes on herself. "Uhm...eh, what gave you this idea?" Thankfully cats couldn't blush.

Pluto shook her head. This was one of the changes in the timeline. Unlike before, Luna and Artemis were by far less angsty and shy about their attraction for each other. She had the suspicion that this time it'd take them far less time to get a bundle of joy.

"Naughty Luna..." Moon said with a grin, then she turned her attention back to Sailor V. "Sailor V! I'm such a big fan of yours! You're a big hero, do exciting stuff and don't have to worry about school stuff and parents."

Minako hated to burst the girl's bubble, but she felt she should better do that now. "Sorry, but I fear you have quite a wrong picture of this business. Outside the uniform I'm pretty much your ordinary girl. I also have to worry about my grades and hope my parents don't get annoyed by me."

Sailor Moon looked quite disappointed. "Ahhhh, man... Well, who are you? I'm..." She was stopped by a gloved hand over her mouth.

"I'm sorry, Sailor Moon, but I think it is best for you two to right now keep your secrets. Don't get me wrong, I would like to see you two work together, but the time is not right yet. Your advisors will know and keep in contact with both of you, until the right time to reveal that secret," Pluto explained calmly to them.

Both girls looked disappointed, but considering the aura of wisdom that Pluto radiated, they accepted this explanation without protest. Seeing this, the elder Senshi continued. "I called you to tell you the reason for your awakening and the story the preceeds it. Your advisors may knows parts of it, but they have forgotten a lot. Listen and watch, while the echoes of the past play by..."

The mists around them changed, showing them pictures of a time long gone. Pluto narrated what they saw.

"Thousands of years ago, mankind had expanded over the whole solar system. Their home was Earth, but now they had colonies on every planet. What exactly happened was never revealed, lost in the mists of history, but the colonies one day cut their connection to the kingdom of Earth, uniting under the rule of the Moon. It was during that time, that the ancient magics were discovered, which could make a normal person into a protector of a planet, drawing power from it to fuel great powers."

The pictures showed a beautiful palace and a white-haired queen. "Queen Serinity of the Moon had established her line as the rulers. She was, as you would say today, real sexist and decided arrogantly that only woman should be holders of this magics. So fitting candidates were chosen and uniforms created, that were woven into the planetary magics... No, I can feel your question, we can't cange these embarrassing things into something different. And yes, they WERE designed by a woman. Think your part."

"Years went by... On one Sereinty, the next followed. The Senshi grew old and were replaced by new, young girls. This went on for several centuries. I'm the only exception. My duties made me practically immortal. It is a great burden and caused me lots of grief..." She let the two young Senshi digest these news, before she went on. "The Moon Kingdom became rather arrogant and looked down on the poeple of Earth as primitives, despite them having achived a high level of civilisation."

The mists showed them a teenage girl in a beautiful dress and a young man in a noble's armour. "One day, roughly 10,000 years ago, an Earth noble named Beryl approached the prince of Earth, Endymion. She confessed her love for him, but he rejected her, chosing the young Princess Serenity over her. -Sigh- if Endymion had been somewhat more tactful and gentle in letting Beryl down, nothing would have happened. Instead, Beryl's broken heart attracted evil forces."

A red-haired woman knelt on the ground, her features starting to get twisted by dark mist. "The dark power only known as the great Master Metallia turned her unfulfilled love into darkness and she became twisted and evil. She had it easy with this power to brainwash the soldiers and fleets of Earth under her control. She even managed to control the four Generals, Prince Endymion's closest friends and allies."

Pluto knew that while showing the four, that her meddling with time had changed one of the four. Former Zoycite was now known as Zoisite and had turned into a woman. It was one of the stranger changes. Not that this had stopped Kunzite...

"They reduced the fleets of the Moon Kingdom to wrecks and destroyed the power systems of the colonies. The cities on the gas giants were swallowed by the atmospheres, on Mercury they melted away, the ones on Venus were eaten by the acid in the atmosphere and the heat, Mars cities suffocated and the cities on Pluto froze solid. The Senshi of the outer planets were slaughtered and I was bound to only watch the massacre..."

The pictures changed, showing the army of brainwashed soldiers and many horrible monsters attacking the Moon. "The Senshi of the inner planets tried to protect the queen and princess, but they were killed as well and all the cities on the Moon destroyed. However, in her desperation the queen used the most powerful artifact, the Silver Crystal, to seal away Beryl, Metallia, the Generals and the monsters known as Youma. However, she meant no malice to the soldiers, she knew it wasn't their fault that dark forces had taken away their free will."

"She used the power of the crystal to send everyone's souls, civilians, senshi and all the fallen Earth soldiers, back to Earth to be reborn in a future time... She told you, Luna and Artemis, to find the Senshi when the time would come, before sending you away in suspended animation. Then she died..." The mists around them returned to normal.

"Wow..." Minako hadn't known that this was the back-story of all this business.

"You start to awaken because the seal was broken and Beryl and her Dark Kingdom are free to attack again. Right now they are still weak. However, should they gather enough energy..." Pluto told them warningly, making it clear that this was no game.

Luna and Artemis felt that it had been the pure truth. The gaps in their memory had closed by now. "So, what are we intended to do now?" Artemis asked.

"Well, the reborn moon princess is safe and I know where she is, so the primary task right now is to find the other Senshi. The Senshi of of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are my responsibility, so do not burden yourselves with it. It will be Sailor Moon's job to find the Senshi of Mercury, Mars and Jupiter. Venus has to push back the Dark Kingdom, when Moon can't go against them."

"Uhm... What if I have more questions?" Sailor Moon asked her.

Pluto produced something out of thin air, it looked like one of these small pocket calculators combined with a small screen. "You can use this to contact me. But please, only do this when you really need to," she cautioned the girl, giving one to Moon and Venus each.

Pluto felt that she had done well for all the exposition to the two girls. Now, after getting them back home, she would have to talk with the moon cats for the details, after all they were Usagi's and Minako's advisors and therefore they should have all the needed facts.

Hopefully with this good start, things now wouldn't turn out as bad as originally.

* * *

_...in the Dark Kingdom..._

"Where is the energy that you promised, Jadeite?" Queen Beryl asked her general when he'd returned empty-handed. "You know that our great Master needs it. What happened to your plan?" She hated delays, and her Master was in great need.

"I know, my queen. However, someone I didn't expect, interfered," Jadeite reported. He knew, his queen would find the information about their new enemy very interesting and it would spare him the shame of an avoidable failure.

"An unexpected enemy?" she asked him, raising an eyebrow. "Better explain yourself."

"It was a reincarnated Sailor Senshi, and clearly not the same one that destroyed the Dark Agency. My queen, this can't be a coincidence. What our prophets predicted obviously has begun, the warriors of the Moon Kingdom start to reawaken," Jadeite reported to her.

Queen Beryl said nothing at first, although her scrowl made it clear that she didn't like these news at all. The news about Sailor V had not concerned her too much, since she didn't seem to be a planetary Senshi. However, a new Senshi disrupting their plans... that did concern her. Senshi had the bad habit of interfering in plans and she couldn't use this at all right at the moment.

"I don't hope so. They are the only ones that can put our plans in real danger... Jadeite! You have to keep me informed about everything on this matter you discover. Meanwhile we still need to harvest energy. What are your new plans?"

"My queen, my first thought is, to harvest where interference is unlikely..."

"Impossible, our portals have been tuned on the city of Tokyo since the Silver Crystal's signature comes from aroud that area. To re-align them would cost us too much energy. Energy we don't have at the moment," she shot down this suggestion. "What are your other plans?"

Jadeite hated that they were so limited just because they had to conserve energy. Good thing that he had backup plans. "I do have a big plan, but it will need time before I can present it. Meanwhile I'll take security measures to make sure that I won't lose the next batch of energy. I have several ideas how to get energy," he told Beryl.

"I leave the details to you, Jadeite, as long as you get results," she dismissed him.

"I promise, I won't fail this time, my queen," Jadeite promised, before leaving the throne room. He already knew what a good plan would be to get enough energy to statisfy Queen Beryl. It only needed a little preperation. Another failure was no option.

Back in the throne room, Queen Beryl conjured a picture of the Senshi of old in her crystal ball, scrowling at it.

She'd hoped that these annoyances wouldn't be re-incarnated, but now it seemed to have happened anyway. Perhaps it was the fault of the plutonian bitch who'd survived their attack by hiding in an extra-dimensional space? Regardless how, Beryl hoped that Jadeite would soon get more information about them, so that they could destroy them once and for all.

No one should stay in her way.

* * *

_...school, some days later..._

"And he really flipped Ms. Haruna's skirt?" Ami asked, astounded.

"Yeah, and that pervert really enjoyed it!" Akane told her heatedly, while they sat under the tree, Ranma sitting beside them and being busy with eating his lunch. "And that's not all. Ranma, you saw what he and these two other assholes did during class to her."

Ranma looked up from his bento box. "Yeah, they read manga during class and then they tripped her when she tried to tell them to stop it. Really strange, I thought these three were rather passive..." He really wondered what had gotten into these three, especially Umino. Yesterday they'd been totally normal, and now they acted as if owning the school.

Although he didn't show it, they really pissed him off with their attitude. However, there was little he could actually do. All of them were rather whimpy guys and beating them up would only make him a bully. So right now he was forced to watch them acting like asses with no way he knew how to make them stop.

The fight a few days ago was still on his mind.

Thankfully no one had been seriously injured and Naru's mother also was all right. However, the police didn't believe them about the monster and just wrote it up as a female robber trying to gas the people while robbing the store. Well, if they wanted it to be this way... He also thought about this Sailor... something, that had appeared. She obviously wasn't much of a fighter and he'd made a silent vow: never ever would he wear a get-up like hers. Hell would freeze over before that would happen.

Well, to his big surprise his mother had been all right when he'd returned home. While she did praise him for his courage to find the culprit, it seemed that she had some difficulty to actually believe the story, asking if he was really sure that it was a monster. Not that he could fault her for this, after all it sounded rather outlandish, even for a mother who had an aquasexual son. Surprisingly, his father did believe him right away. Ever since that day, his old man was putting him through the wringer to learn how to detect ki-traces. Maybe seeing his wife nearly getting sucked dry had knocked a little sense into his thick head.

_Well, my old man is now seriously on my case. I wonder what he meant, that he had seen stuff worse than what I have described,_ he thought, wondering what his old man could mean.

Ami meanwhile tried to understand the strange behaviour of Ranma's classmates. "I'm by far no expert when it comes to other people... but I find all that really strange. Well, there isn't anything we can do right now... Oh, and Ranma, I corrected the mock exam we made." She then shook her head. "I thought you promised me to make an efford?"

Damn, he hated it when she did that. It made him feel so guilty for disappointing her. "Sorry, Ami... But you see how much my old man puts me through the wringer recently. I tried my best, but I was so exhausted that I had difficulties to concentrate."

She knew, she had seen it herself. She'd thought of Genma Saotome as a lazy fatass. Boy, had he surprised her by proving that he was real fast and despite his mass quite an acrobat. Ami at first had been concerned, until Ranma had told her that this was tame and that his old man finally put a real efford into teaching him something. He'd added that this was nothing like his more insane ideas.

Ami had vowed that she never wanted to learn what these insane ideas were.

"Alright, but don't think I'll lat this slide for too long. Should this go on, I have to tell your mother that you need more time for school," she told him. They were good friends by now, but she knew what she had to be strict. After he'd admitted to her that sometimes he was tempted to go easy, despite actually wanting to become better in school.

"I hope it won't come to that..."Ranma whispered.

Ranma really didn't want to have his mother again on his case about his grades. Her delayed reaction to his bombed English exam had been bad enough. She could make him feel so ashamed just by saying that she was disappointed. Ranma had dubbed it the 'mom-speech', since it was a great motivator.

Seeing that Ranma was about to return to eating, Akane hoped that she could ask him if he'd made a decision by now concerning her question if he could help her keeping in shape. "Ranma, I..."

**-Skliiiir-**

Hearing the breaking of glass, they looked up, to see a mob of students, boys and girls alike, starting to throw in the windows of the teacher's lounge, laughing the whole time. They were led by Umino and seemed to really enjoy it, calling the teachers weaklings and loudmouths, while throwing stones.

Ami dropped her sandwich when seeing this. "They can't do that! They'll get into lots of trouble for it!"

Akane rolled her eyes, then put down her bento. "I came to this school to recover from my original school... I don't want it to become another madhouse."

Ranma was about to get up. He'd done nothing up to now, but after seeing this he thought that maybe giving them a piece of his mind (meaning scaring the hell out of them) would propably make them stop. However, Akane's arm stopped him.

"No, let me do that," she told him.

Ranma was tempted to tell her that this propably wasn't a good idea, but decided to not do so. "Ok, but should they do anything, I'm right there at once."

"I'm not made of glass." Getting up she slowly walked towards the group. However, halfway there she stopped when she saw Usagi and Naru running towards Umino. Since these two knew him a lot longer, she stopped and hoped that they could get him see reason. But what she heard and saw spoke a different language.

"Hello Usagi-sugar... Come, gimme a kiss."

"Eh? Umino, I don't like you that way."

"Ah, come on! I know you want it!"

"No! Stay away!"

Akane saw red and barely stopped herself from clobbering Umino right now. "KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF HER!" she shouted, getting the attention of the mob, and they lost their confidence when seeing the enraged girl. Maybe their eyes played tricks on them, but for a second she seemed to have glowed an angry red.

"You little perv! Just like the others... I should... Dammit Ranma, let me ram him into the ground!" Her angry speech was cut short when Ranma held her back from advancing further and she protested. She really wanted to use Umino as a punching-ball right now!

Umino realised even under the influence of evil, that he shouldn't ignore this present, and made a fast exit. The mob obviously decided right then to follow his exampe and seconds later they were all gone. Then, and only then, did Ranma let go of Akane, who finally seemed to calm down.

"You were up and about to kill him. That's it, you really need a way to let off steam. A good spar every three days at my house after school," Ranma decided right then. He had seen Akane's aura becoming visible. Considering how angry red it was, she really needed more control, or someone could get real hurt.

"And I thought I was back to normal... damn Kuno..." she sighed, still shaking from this experience. OK, she now got Ranma to spar with her. But she didn't want him to decide because of her sometimes barely resrained anger. "Excuse me for a moment..." She quickly left for the girl's room. She really needed some cold water into her face right now.

Shaking his head, Ranma returned to Ami, ignoring Naru and Usagi talking. These two had watched the whole exchange without saying a word. Sitting down beside Ami, he sighed. "Damn, I don't know this Kuno guy but I really hate him for how he messed her up..."

Ami knew by now that there weren't many things that could really get to Ranma. However, he reacted real bad should something happen to his friends. He was really loyal, had grown this way ever since interacting with others of his age. It was one of these things she really liked about him. Not that he was a saint. He had a huge ego and always tried to prove that he was the best, a trait which had gotten him into serious trouble several times in the past. But this was counter-balanced by his good traits.

"I think you don't give her enough credit..." Ami remarked.

"Yeah, you know, I and her are much alike. Difference is she gets angry far too easy... Strange girl, almost as much a tomboy as me when I'm in my girl-form," Ranma added, scratching his head, before returning his attention to his lunch.

Ami didn't want to comment on that. She had a feeling that Akane would be really hurt by the tomboy comment. Sometimes Ranma could be real insensitive to other people's feelings. Well, she decided to change the topic to something she'd wanted to ask him for quite some time. "Ranma?"

"Yeah?" he asked, looking up from his bento box.

_Damn... Who would have thought it would be this hard to ask a simple question? _"Want to have some ice cream after school?" she asked him, gathering her courage. It was harder than she'd thought.

"I don't know. Ice cream is girl stuff, I..." He stopped when seeing her disappointment. Damn, that always worked on him! He sighed. "I guess that's one of these times were my curse comes in handy?"

Ami allowed herself a slight smile. While they were both totally inept in social interaction in their own age group, they were both slowly learning. "Trust me, after you've tasted it, you won't care in which form you are."

Well, _that_ aroused Ranma's interest.

* * *

_...at the same time..._

"Wait until I finally get you, Ranma!" he growled, while marching forward, hoping that he could finally find his hated rival.

"Должны ли мы вызвать полицию?" one woman asked her husband, while watching this suspicious stranger walking across the Red Square.

"Я не знаю. Он ушел в любом случае," her husband answered, pointing out that the strange teenager had vanished all of a sudden.

Oh, how Ryoga Hibiki hated Ranma Saotome! Ranma, who was only out there to humiliate him at every possible moment. Ranma, who had shown his true colors as the coward he is when he'd run away from their fight. Ranma, whose cowardice had caused this search which had resulted in the latest disaster. Something that was worse than every other of Ranma's sins together!

Royaga Hibiki really hated becoming a piglet. And that became clear from day one of this curse, when that fat chinese man had tried to cook him alive. Since then he always had nightmares about ending up on someone's plate as lunch.

He'd heard that the coward was now back in Tokyo, Minato ward, but actually getting there proved more difficult than first aniticipated. His second curse of no sense of direction and ending up in totally different places in a matter of seconds made his hunt really difficult.

_ما هذا الصبي تفعل هنا؟__, _an operator wondered, while watching the strange teenage boy walking through the oil fields in central Saudi-Arabia.

So far he'd ended up in several bad places. One worse than the other, and two of these places he tried to forget with all his might. First there was this tea house for 'marital arts' with these three things that you could barely call woman. Thankfully a fourth, rather good looking girl had thrown him out when he'd stammered that he had no money. He'd be so scared that he'd been unable to move. He'd thrown up his next three meals after this horrible encounter.

And maybe even worse was that one time when he'd been turned into a piglet, only to be abducted by some airhead-girl named Azusa. She'd declared him her property and named him 'Charlotte'. He still had nightmares from what had followed in that encounter. He'd been lucky to escape in the last second before she could put a collar on him.

Of course Ryoga held Ranma responsible for all of this. Like anyone incapable of admitting that they'd fucked up, it was far easier to just blame someone else. He never even considered his own responsibility in how he'd landed in this situation. "Ranma, when I find you, revenge will be mine!" he screamed to the heavens.

Dockworkers at the Kobe docks wondered what this kid's problem was, before promptly ignoring him. They had more important things to do then to listen to the rants of an emo teenager.

_**to be continued...**_

Translation:

On the red square the woman asks "Should we call the police?" The husband answers "I don't know. He's gone anyway."

The oil worker wonders _What's this boy doing here?_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"Enter the Piglet"**_


	7. Enter the Piglet

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

Ranma worst rival arrives...

**After years I finally returned to the story. Please note that thanks to my improvements in writing style, I was unhappy with the old chapters and significantly updated them, so it is worth to read them again (also to again get a feel for the story). Ryoga-lovers be warned, that I have no love for him and he gets significantly humiliated in this chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Enter the Piglet**

"You know, I really don't understand them. First they act as if they own the school, and now that they get punished, they're whining," Ranma told Ami, while watching the group of students -most prominently Umino- sitting in the yard like a group of beaten dogs.

"I don't know, either. At least they seem to be back to normal," Ami added.

After the scene yesterday with the thrown-in windows, today had been completely different. Most of them didn't even seem to remember their actions. Not that that helped them; their denials only making their punishment more severe. What's left was a pile of pitiful students complaining how unfair the world was.

"Back to normal...Yeah..." Ranma then looked in the other direction, seeing three girls talking. It seemed that Usagi was trying to convince Naru and Akane of something. "Wonder what they are talking about?"

Actually, Usagi was busy with trying to convince Naru and Akane that they shouldn't be too hard on the formerly possessed people and perhaps just forget the whole thing. However, while Naru was willing enough to let it rest, Akane was another matter.

"Tell me one good reason why I should do that. Especially after what Umino did."

Usagi knew that she could hardly tell Akane that Umino and the others had been possessed by a Youma disguised as a fortune-teller, and therefore were not responsible for their actions while under its mind control. She also could hardly tell her that after she'd destroyed the Youma as Sailor Moon, all the victims had forgotten what they'd done during that time. That made her position of pleading for forgiveness a lot harder against this girl, who could hold a grudge.

"Because you're a good person at heart?" Usagi tried, hoping that it didn't sound too corny while Naru watched the entire exchange, wondering if Usagi's usual charm could work with someone like Akane.

"Yeah, sure..." Akane then stopped when Usagi gave her a hurt look, as if she'd just witnessed her kicking a puppy. She looked as if she could burst into tears at any moment. Little did Akane know that she was falling to the 'secret wepon' right at this moment. "I...I won't simply forgive him... But I also won't give him more grief over it, ok?"

Usagi knew, she couldn't expect more than that. She was about to answer, when...

**-Crrrrraaaaaccckkkk-**

Everyone went silent when suddenly a part of the brick wall surrounding the school property collapsed. Looking at the gap in the perimeter wall, they saw a teenage boy standing there, whose most striking visiual characteristics were the yellow bandana with black polka dots over his foehead, the huge travelling pack on his back and the big umbrella he was holding. If not for him breaking down the wall and his expression of pure fury, it would've looked comical.

"Where is he? Where is that coward Saotome?" the boy shouted, so that everyone could hear it.

"Ranma, do you have enemies?" Ami asked her friend. After transformative magic, this looked almost ordinary.

Ranma looked to the enraged teenager but was unable to put a name to the face, although he had the feeling that he knew him. "No idea who he is, although I have the feeling I should. I wonder what he thinks gives him the right to barge in and call me a coward. Maybe I should ask him."

"Do you really think that's wise?" Ami asked, concerned. "He looks really angry and possibly even capable of becoming violent."

Ranma shook his head in amusement. "Don't worry. I'm very capable of defending myself..." Putting his bento box aside, he got up and walked to the boy who seemed to become more enraged with each second. "Hey you! What's your beef with me?" he called.

"YOU! Because of you I've seen hell!" the boy shouted as soon as seeing Ranma, dropping his pack to the ground..

Ranma was not really impressed. One thing he knew was, that getting angry too easy was a great way to lose. "It would help to fist know who you are that you think you can just call me a coward."

"Don't act so innocent! Because of you..."

"You've seen hell. Yeah, yeah, I already know. But that really doesn't help me. So either spit it out or leave me alone," Ranma said in annoyance. This boy was starting to annoy him, but as his mother had drilled into him, he'd not be the one responsible for violence.

The teenager looked at Ranma as if he'd grown a second head, growing even more angry when it dawned to him that Ranma really had no idea who he was. "You don't even remember me? After all the humiliation you caused me in middle school?"

Ranma desperately tried to remember who had could possibly have pissed off during middle school almost two years ago. That was more difficult because teenagers change a lot in two years. So he came up with a blank. "I still don't get it."

"How could you forget!" the boy screamed in anger. "First you always stole my bread and than you ran away from our fight to settle it!"

That finally stirred Ranma's memory. "Ryoga Hibiki?" His memory of the boring time in middle school finally returned. The boy with the bad sense of direction whom he'd helped to get to and from school and who'd always lost at the daily bread fights when bread was thrown into the crowd. So when the school year had been over and they'd graduated, Ryoga had wanted a fight to get even with him for all the times he'd lost.

He also remembered what had happened then. "What are you accusing me of? You fairly lost all the time and you didn't show up when I waited for you for our fight. And that was in the yard behind your house. I waited three whole days before Pop hauled me off."

The crowd which had gathered by now was amused by Ryoga's obvious lack of direction if he couldn't find his way to the yard behind his own house in three days. Consensus was also, that if that was true, there was nothing he could accuse Ranma of. The laughter and giggling caused Ryoga to redden in embarrassment and anger.

"You should have waited longer! Ever since then I tried to catch up with you and saw hell because of it!"

Ranma shook his head. He remembered the lessons that he was not to be held responsible for the foolishness of others. Honor only meant his own one, not trying to take the fall for others. There had been a time he'd liked Ryoga, but it was diffcult to continue doing so with Ryoga running around and unloading all his shortcomings on him.

"That's your own problem. As I see it, you forfeited with not appearing and I waited longer than anyone else would have. I actually don't really care what happened afterwards, that's because you felt the need to go on your revenge trip. Leave me alone." That said, Ranma turned around to walk back to Ami.

"Watch out!"

Ami's warning caused Ranma jump to the side. Just in time, as an umbrella slammed into the ground where he'd been a second ago, pulverising the concrete. Now Ranma was pissed. Attacking him from behind! Now that Ryoga had actually attacked him, there was nothing speaking against showing him that this had been a mistake. Jumping out of the way of another attack, the fight was on.

Everyone watched the fight in awe. This Ryoga seemed to have considerable stength, but Ranma was much faster. For the moment, the only one suffering seemed to be the ground, Ryoga's strikes with his umbrella demolishing it. Ranma seemed to understand that he first had to disarm his opponent and after a minute he managed to kick the umbrella out of Ryoga's hand and it landed some distance away. Not that this stopped him from continuing to try to beat Ranma into a pulp.

While the two boys fought, Naru curiously tried to pick up the umbrella, but had little luck. "Urgh... that almost felt like I dislocated something in my back... Akane, you're the strongest of us, you try."

Akane didn't know if she should see this as a compliment, but nonetheless tried as well. After all, for a girl of her built she was unusually strong, stronger than any other girl she knew. She actually did manage to pick it up, but she had to put real efford into it, as it was damn heavy.

"What is this thing made of? It feels like it weighs a ton," she grunted while trying to hold it with both hands.

Ami took a closer look at it. "That doesn't wonder me. Apart from the fabric, this umbrella is made of pure lead. Better put it back down, before it falls onto your feet."

"That guy must be really strong to wave it around like that with one hand," Naru observed while Akane put it back down, then looked to Usagi. "Please don't tell me you think of him as dating material. The last one had been bad enough."

"What? No! That guy is a jerk, so much is obvious. I..." **-splashhhh-** Usagi got interrupted when they heard something falling into water.

A strong kick had thrown Ranma into the fountain, end result being a pissed-looking and soaked readhead climbing out of it, with a baffed Ryoga watching. Ami shook her head when seeing this. If there was a way to rile up Ranma, it was by triggering his curse on purpose. She could already see her only waiting for a chance to pound Ryoga. However, Ryoga only stared.

"What?" Ranma hissed, when seeing this. She sincerely hoped he was not staring at her breasts. She'd found out that this felt uncomfortable and hated it. "What are you staring at?"

"You turn... into a girl?" Ryoga said, before breaking out into laughter. "That serves you right for what you did to me!"

Ranma hated it when someone made fun of her curse and now was thoroughly pissed off. "Hey, what's so funny, you jerk!" Ryoga didn't stop laughing, pissing off Ranma even more. "Dare you if you think that turns me into a sissy. Do you even listen, you pig?"

That suddenly caused Ryoga stop laughing. "DIE!" he screamed, his amusement all of a sudden turned into anger. He grabbed his bandana -with another one at once appearing- and threw it like a javelin at Ranma, who jumped out of the way, only to see it cutting deep into the fountain, proving that these things were unbelivably sharp. Ryoga however threw one after the other at Ranma while the crowd now seemed to understand that they should better run away.

"You idiot!... What are you doing? There are bystanders!" Ranma however didn't get through, as Ryoga seemed to be in a rage.

Akane was running away like everyone. However, one bandana flew in her direction and had she not been moving... However, the damage was still done. "Ayyeeee!" she screamed high-pitched when she felt something sharp barely missing the back of her neck. However... she felt that something was missing. Turning around,she saw it on the ground.

"Akane!" Usagi called, running to her, ignoring that with that scream the fighting had stopped. She saw Akane picking something up and then seeming to freeze while staring at it. Getting closer, Usagi saw that it was hair... Akane's hair had been cleanly sliced off at the hight of her neck. "Oh gods..."

"Akane...please, talk to me..." Usagi tried, but didn't get an answer.

Meanwhile Ami looked at the back of the neck and shuddered when seeing that it had been a real close call. There was a thin, bleeding line where the bandana had passed. Some millimeters closer and Akane wouldn't have survived. Seeing Ranma run to them, she held up her hand to stop her. "She's ok, only a scratch... but it was close. A little further..."

Ranma was relieved that her friend was not injured, but then saw her standing stock still, staring at the hair in her hand. "Akane...? What's wrong with her?"

Usagi waved her hand in front of her. No reaction. "I think she's went into shock."

"Hey, come back here! It's only a scratch, so don't ignore me!"

Ranma turned to Ryoga, the dangerous glint in her eyes instantly shutting him up. Up to now it had only been a fight between them. But now that he'd almost maimed Akane just because he didn't care for bystanders, that ignited real anger in Ranma. "Wrong answer, asshole."

"Who are you calliaaahhhhhhhh!"

Everyone looked in sick fascination how the formerly even fight turned into a one-sided slaughter. Everyone also swore to never get on Ranma's bad side after witnessing this beat-down. It seemed that Ranma being angry at Ryoga had tripled her strength and attacks, even though Ranma still was very much in control to not let it go out of hand. However, that did not mean that Ryoga would get off easy - quite in the contrary. While Ryoga was really tough, right now that didn't matter as he felt like a living punching ball.

Usagi, Ami and Naru had meanwhile managed to carefully navigate Akane to the nearest bench, sitting her down. They then watched without any sympathy for Ryoga the smackdown that Ranma was giving him. After almost killing the poor girl with his indiscriminate weapon usage, Ryoga didn't deserve anything better.

In the end even Ryoga knew that a tactical retreat would be the best for the time being.

Ranma said nothing when she watched him running away, grabbing his pack and umbrella, before jumping over the perimeter wall and out of her field of view. She didn't care and walked over to where the girls were caring for Akane.

* * *

_...Tsukino home..._

Hearing the front door open, Ikuko Tsukino wondered why the girls were back already, since after all it would still be hours before school was over. "Back already? It's still hours before... Oh dear, how did that happen?"

There were not only Usagi and Akane, but also Naru and Ami. Akane looked as if someone had shot a puppy in her presence and her hair looked as if someone had attacked it with a cutlass. Usagi was the one to answer her question. "You know, Mom, that's a rather long story... Uhm, can you fix her hair while we tell you?"

Looking at the damage done -and noticing the prominent scar on her neck- she knew that Akane pretty much had to get a different hair style if it weren't to look ridiculous. "Looks like I have to shorten it..." Guiding Akane onto a kitchen chair, she then turned to Ami. "You sit down there. I'll pattern it after the way you wear yours. And while I'm busy... how did this happen?"

"Started during lunch break. We were all minding our business when all of a sudden a boy named Ryoga Hibiki appeared and started to insult Ranma as a coward. Turned out that he knew him during middle school. For a dumb reason he challenged Ranma but then didn't appear and forfeited," Naru started to explain.

"Then where was the problem?" Ikuko wondered, while starting to trim Akane's hair at strategic places.

Usagi snorted. "Mom, this guy wouldn't take responsibility for anything. He blamed Ranma, went on a revenge trip and everything that happened to him during that, he of course also blamed on Ranma. What a loser..."

"Anyway..." Ami tried to stop Usagi from ranting further. "Ranma told him to leave and Ryoga became violent. And when he threw around blades without caring for bystanders, this happened. Thankfully it was only her hair..."

"I hope he got arrested," Ikuko said. After all, someone this dangerous shouldn't be free.

Naru shook her head. "No, the police arrived only after Ranma had beaten the snot out of Ryoga and he'd fled the school grounds. Everyone testified that Ranma had only acted in self-defense and then we voltuneered to get Akane home."

Naru felt it was best to not mention that Ryoga Hibiki had pretty much pissed off everyone at Juuban High with his behavior, ensuring that everyone was most enthusiastic to defend Ranma, who'd shown quite an amount of restraint in light of it. She found it incredible how someone -namely Hibiki- could trash his own reputation in mere minutes.

Ikuko shook her head. From her perspective, school had become so much more undisciplined since her days. She hoped they'd get this hooligan. She then looked to where her work on Akane's hair took form. "Oh dear. It'll take quite some time for you to let it grow out again."

Akane used the moment to finally break the silence by letting out a humorless laugh. "I don't think... I'll let it grow out again. It was stupid..." Usagi looked offened, considering her long hair, but Akane continued. "I really thought it would make me different..." She looked up, being careful not to disturb the scissors. "Have you ever felt thoroughly humiliated? That happened to me during my first year of middle school."

"I don't understand what this has to do with hair..." Usagi wondered. Akane right at the moment made little sense to her.

Either Akane didn't hear her, or she didn't care, as she continued "There was a school play... Romeo and Juliet... I so much wanted to play Juliet, but they made me play Romeo. And you know why? They said I look like a boy and that I'm not feminine enough. The other girls made fun of me for weeks afterwards... That was when I decided to let my hair grow out."

Ikuko shook her head. "You propably have developed later than other girls, but no one would now confuse you for a boy."

"I know that now... But the best is yet to come." She said this with such sarcasm, that the others wondered if she'd lost more than just hair. She noticed that. "No I haven't lost it. Don't think anything like that... It's just that the other reason why I let my hair grow out was pretty stupid. I got a crush on the family doctor."

Ikuko stopped trimming Akane's hair and looked astonished to her. "Isn't he as a doctor much older?"

"Not that much older, he's just 25 right now. The clinic was run by his father, so we knew him for years as the apprentice. He took over four years ago. It was during that time I developed a girl-crush on him... I shouldn't have bothered. He only has eyes for my eldest sister, Kasumi, who is three years my senior. I thought he'd notice me if I let my hair grow long like Kasumi's..."

"Let me guess... it didn't work," Naru guessed.

"Exactly. He's so much in love with Kasumi... Actually having to wait several years until she's an adult has driven Dr. Tofu also half insane. He always gets loopy when she's around." Akane shook her head when feeling that Mrs. Tsukino was done with trimming her hair. "I'd been naive and saw today that it was a stupid reason. It feels symbolical that I leave that behind with my short hair."

"Don't tell me you forgive this jerk Hibiki for all of this," Usagi said, while giving Akane a mirror for checking her new haircut.

"Of course not!" Now, that sounded more like the Akane they knew. "As soon as I see him again, his head ends up on a pike." Of course she didn't mean that literal, but she'd give him a piece of her mind in form of her fists. She then compared her mirror image to Ami. "Ok, that'll cause some confusion at the beginning."

Ami knew what Akane meant. Now the two of them looked a lot alike. Of course not identical, something like that only happened in fiction, but in the distance or when turned away, there was the chance for confusion. After all, no one could bother with the fact, that Akane was only a bit taller than her. This propably would be especially confusing for poor Ranma.

Ami seriously considered, if she should warn him ahead.

* * *

_...that night..._

It was silent in the Saotome house, with the only sound being the rain hitting the windows. Its occupants were done for the day and most of the house was dark by now. This however was only to the advantage of the unwelcome intruder who was right at the moment sneaking up the stairs to the first floor.

Ryoga still was amazed how fast he'd found the home of his nemesis. Doing so in mere hours was a record with his bad sense of direction and even the rain hadn't stopped him. After fleeing from the humiliating clobbering he'd gotten at the school, he was even more determined to get back at Ranma. Surprising him unaware would be a good way to accomplish this. Not even for a second did he question his plan or its honor -after all he was completely convinced he was in the right.

Finally arriving at the first floor, he stood before a dilemma he hadn't anticipated. He had no idea what Ranma's door was.

_Oh, that's great? Where to start?_ he wondered, looking at the various doors. None of them were labeled. Of course, that would have been too easy.

Then he saw light coming out from under one of the doors -which unlike the others was a traditional sliding door- and saw shadow movement. In a strange leap of logic he determined at once that this had to be Ranma, as to his reasoning no one else would be up this late. Cracking his knuckles, he marched up to the door, already knowing what he'd shout to his nemesis. Determined, he slammed the sliding door open.

"Prepare to..." the rest suddenly died.

This actually was not Ranma's room at all. It more looked like he'd barged into the master bedroom and there stood a middle-aged woman in the process of disrobing, wearing just her undergarments. She looked at him like a deer in the headlights for what seemed to be eternity, but in reality it was only three seconds, then she reacted in her own way to the intruder.

**"EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!"**

That cry of panic had surely been loud enough to wake up the entire house. Ryoga had barely managed a step backwards, when all of a sudden it sounded as if a herd of elephants was stampeding up the stairs. Looking to his right, he saw Ranma's father appear at the top of the stairs. The elder man needed only to see some stranger having broken into their house and the sight of his wife in her undergarments, to come to the conclusion that this was some pervert who'd tried to molest her.

"You scum!" he roared, getting red with anger. "I'll flatten you like a bug!"

"No, that's a misundersta..."

"What's the ruckus?" came from Ryoga's left as the door there opened and a sleepy looking Ranma appeared. Sleepy, until he suddenly had to drop to the floor to avoid being hit by a human football sent this way by his father's foot. The body sailed right through the open window of his room and vanished from view.

Looking up, Ranma saw his father looking utterly pissed and his mother being busy with securing her sleeping yukata. "Ok, what the hell is going on? Who just got booted out of my window?"

Genma was trying to get his anger under control. He hadn't felt this furious in a long time. "Some slimy lowlife had preyed on your mother to sully her honor. I'll look through the garden to see if this scum is still here." That said, Genma went down the stairs.

Ranma looked after him. "Woah... I haven't seen Pop this angry in years. That he just accepts going panda in order to find this guy... Uhm, everything OK, Mom?"

"Yes... It was just the surprise. Some seconds longer and I would've cut this pervert to pieces with the honor blade I keep in my room." She then looked to the open window. "Do you always sleep with your window open?"

"Until it gets too cold, yes. I slept under the sky for so many years, I need fresh air or I can't sleep." Going to the window, he looked outside but only saw a panda searching through the garden. "Pop, he's gone. Let's go back to bed," he called, then closed the window.

While walking back into her room, Nodoka couldn't help but to be proud of Genma's reaction. Her husband had been furious at the intrusion and possible attempt to sully her honor. He also was very insistant to make sure that the intruder was gone. This was a lot like the Genma of old, who'd been very protective of her. Despite some woman saying that this was patronizing, she liked it.

After all it showed that he cared.

o

At the morning the events of the night were already mostly forgotten. While walking down the stairs, Nodoka could hear Genma and Ranma in the garden, her husband again being busy with trying to get their son to understand some really important technique. She'd tried to understand what exactly it was, but she'd soon felt lost with the terminology and left it alone afterwards.

She'd for now enjoy a bath, then make breakfast and again enjoy the byplay when Ami would arrive in time for also being at the table and interact with her son. Recently the girl somehow had gotten into the habit of enjoying breakfast together with them, especially with Saeko being on early shift currently.

Walking to the furo, she suddenly stopped when she noticed something on the ground. Picking it up she saw that it was a black piglet... a dirty black piglet. She didn't know where it had come from, but even though she knew it looked cute, it couldn't stay.

"Well, seems like I have to call the animal shelter... But first let's get you clean." The piglet only seemed half awake. So Nodoka walked into the furo and disrobed, before turning on the warm water to clean the piglet. She after all didn't actually want to get her clothes wet.

Meanwhile outside, Genma was still trying to get Ranma to finally understand.

"Ok, boy. Now that I've taught you everything, use it. Dare you if I've wasted my time," he told Ranma, then waited.

Ranma knew that he meant it. His father had been quite serious this time and instead of teaching him something bogus, it would be actually useful. After the episode where his mother got drained of her life energy, his father had taken it upon himself to give him a crash-course in reading life-force and detecting flows of it. Now he needed to show that the training had actually worked and that he could see all the auras that normally were invisible.

Closing his eyes, he concentrated... He did feel something at the back of his mind, and then before his mind's eye, the life energy of all living things around him started to form like a colored outline. Opening his eyes, it looked like an overlay, a bit like a picture from one of these thermal cameras.

"Woah..." The traces disappeared from his sight. "Now that was quite the experience... Pop, you're glowing as bright as a searchlight."

Genma couldn't help but to show a small smile. His son had picked up real fast on the whole concept and was now able to do its basic skills. "Good...good! You've mastered the basic skill..."

**"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

Both of them heard this female scream of terror from the house and stopped dead in their activities. "That was Mom!" Ranma said. However, before they could do anything, a second scream came from the house, but this time it was one of pure anger.

**"YOU BASTARD!" **

What followed was almost surreal to Ranma. Out of the open sliding doors of the family room, a very naked Ryoga ran into the garden, closely followed by Nodoka. The woman was red with anger, her left hand barely holding the hastily thrown over yukata closed while the she wielded a sword with her right, trying to slice Ryoga to pieces, while cursing all the time.

**"STOP RIGHT THERE SO THAT I CAN CUT IT OFF, YOU PERVERTED PIG!"** she screamed.

"No way! Lady, this is all a misunderstanding!" Ryoga yelped, while almost feeling the air pressure from her sword swipes.

**"I'LL GIVE YOU MISUNDERSTANDING, YOU..."**

Ranma blushed when listening to what his mother then said and continued to say. He'd had no idea that his mother had such an extensive vocabulary of the most dirty gutter words. Every seaman would blush at this stream of dirtiest profanity. Ranma himself didn't exactly know what had happened, but seeing a naked Ryoga and his half-naked mother made him think the worst. However, looking at his father, who looked ready to explode, made him decide to better move aside.

Genma was red with anger. This...this pervert had dared to return and from the looks of it, he'd tried to ambush Nodoka in the furo and do something unspeakable to her. A rage he hadn't felt for years errupted within him while watching his wife chasing the pervert through the garden. Now he'd crush this guy flat!

Ryoga himself cursed his bad luck. The rain had put him into his cursed form and then he'd promtly got lost, before finally falling asleep on the floor of some house. How should he have known that it was Ranma's house and that the woman from yesterday would find him? He'd barely woken up up when she'd doused him with warm water, and suddenly he'd stood before her, both of them very naked. And now he was trying to escape this madwoman, who wanted to cut him into pieces.

The situation only got worse when suddenly Ranma's father tried to block his way, looking ready to rip him into shreds. **"YOU SICK (censored)! PREPARE TO DIE!"**

Ryoga knew when he had to leave, and now was a good moment. He ran towards the perimeter fence, where he'd spotted his backpack in the bushes. Grabbing it, he jumped over the high wooden fence and out of sight. However, from the other side of the fence a girl screamed in fear and Ranma knew exactly whose voice that was. Quickly he jumped over the fence as well.

Yep, it had been her. Ami stood there, clutching her book bag, shivering and almost as pale as a sheet. It seemed today she'd been a little earlier than usual. Seeing her friend she stuttered. "R-Ranma... Jumped over the fence... Saw his..."

Ranma could already guess what had happened and swore to deck Ryoga next time he'd see him for scaring poor Ami like this. Taking her by the arm he gently led her to the house, finally seating her at the table in the family room. His father still looked like he needed to let off steam and his mother by now had properly secured her yukata. One look at how pale Ami looked, and she decided other things could wait for now and made some claming tea.

After half a cup, Ami finally had calmed down enough to speak. "I know all of this from books... But to suddenly see it first hand scared me to no end... What happened?" she asked, wondering by now what exactly had led to this.

Nodoka felt like she'd soon need some calming tea as well. "I found a piglet this morning. When I washed it with warm water in the furo, it suddenly turned ito this... person."

Genma again looked as if popping a vein and Ranma groaned. "Ohhhh, this idiot. I knew he'd do something this stupid." Seeing the questioning looks, he added "Remember what I said about Ryoga yesterday? Well, that was him and from your description, he followed me to the pools of sorrow and fell into one of them."

This actually roused Genma's memories. "Now I remember. The guide found a piglet and we wanted to have it for lunch. However, it turned into this...person as soon as being thrown into the pot." It was clear that Genma would love to again shove Ryoga into a cooking pot and cook him alive.

Ami by now no longer was shocked that people could be turned into animals by magic, she'd seen Mr. Saotome do this more than once. Considering this Ryoga's personality, the curse was strangely fitting and she wondered if there was a sort of poetic justice involved in the pools that everyone would get the fitting curse. Ranma had gotten girl to counteract his almost absurdly strong masculine self-image. Mr. Saotome got panda to show his laziness. And Ryoga got pig to mirror his lack of good character traits.

"Life never gets boring..." she muttered, wondering what would come next.

* * *

_...some days later..._

Ami wondered how she could ask the question without looking too curious for her own good.

She was sitting at the breakfast table of the Saotomes and everything was normal, apart from the fact that Nodoka Saotome had somehow decided to no longer put up her long hair, wearing it down instead. Ami had to admit that it looked good on her, but she wondered what had made her do it. Finally it seemed that the woman decided to take pity and help her out of this.

"Dear, the way you are looking at me, I can guess that you wonder why I changed the way I wear my hair," Nodoka told the girl.

Ami silently thanked her for being so insightful. "Ehm... yes. This looks unusual on you... but not bad. It actually looks good."

"Thank you. As for why I did this, you remember that scene some days ago?" Nodoka asked her.

"As if I could forget..." Ami knew that she'd have a hard time to forget that. After all it was not every day that a completely nude boy jumped onto the sidewalk in front of you. She'd gotten over it by now, but it was one of these things you'd remember even after years.

"Should he ever show his face again, he'll be sorry..." Genma grumbled from behind the newspaper.

Nodoka liked this protective streak that Genma was showing recently, but then turned back to the matter at hand. "You propably didn't remember, but I had my hair down and both, Genma and Ranma, told me that it looks good. So I decided to wear it like that."

She didn't tell her that before coming to the final decision, she'd spoken with several other woman she was friends with, in order to get their opinion, fearing that wearing her hair down could clash with her choice of dress. After all it was traditionally put up. However, they actually had told her that there was no conflict and it even made her look younger, adding that in these times no one would see anything wrong with it. She didn't regret the choice, as it obviously was an eye-catch for her husband, who also wasn't used to the sight. The growls of jealously from him when mentioning that men on the street were now noticing her a lot more were a nice extra.

"Sure looks good on you, Mom. I however wouldn't do it myself. No need to look feminine when I'm a girl," Ranma said from the side, while cleaning out the last of his miso soup.

Right then Genma put down the paper and pointed at an article. "Look at this... There's a sleeping sickness going around this ward. People affected by it can't wake up and it only hits girls and woman... Boy, dare you if you catch it."

"Pop, you wound me," Ranma said in his most-mocking tone, before turning serious. "Actually it's little news to me. Yesterday our English teacher Ms. Haruna fell asleep at her desk in front of the entire class and the abulance took her away."

"Oh dear, that sounds like a serious sickness," Nodoka commented, while clearing the table.

"What I don't get is, that there's no reason for these people to stay asleep. My mother says that it's a mystery," Ami said, while getting up. "I think by now everyone is concerned about it."

Ranma snorted. "Surely not everyone. All girls in my class -and that includes Akane- are right now gaga over some kind of kitschy radio program and couldn't care less. I had to tell her to not speak about it during our sparring."

"Oh, I remember. Ikuko told me about the girls staying up to listen to it. Something about reading love letters to the audience..." Nodoka shook her head. "I honestly wonder what this is supposed to accomplish. A love letter should be a private thing."

"Nodoka, I never wrote you a love letter," Genma reminded her, while folding up the newspaper.

"That's because you had different ways to... covey the message." Seeing Ranma blush and knowing very well what mental image she propably had conjured, she innocently asked her son "Is something wrong, son?"

This was one of the times were Ranma was eager to leave for school.

o

Ranma felt like rolling his eyes when seeing what greeted him in the classroom. All the girls had gathered around Naru's desk, while she showed around a flower-shaped brooch. Ranma knew exactly what that thing was, after having to hear the story numerous times in school.

Apparently that was a program on radio FM No. 10 called "Romance at Midnight", moderated by a guy called Jack Dyte. The only content was that Dyte would read love letters, which people had sent in, to the audience. The people whose letters he'd read would receive a flower brooch. Ranma found the whole thing seriously kitschy and a waste of time, but it had turned girls, even Akane, into wishy-washy romantics. Funny enough, Ami just was annoyed by the whole thing.

Seeing that access to his desk was blocked at the moment, Ranma decided to wait and listen to what the girls were talking about.

"That's funny. The same brooch that Ms. Haruna was wearing. I guess she did after all wrote that love letter from two nights ago," Usagi commented, while looking at the brooch,

"Well, it certainly looks better on me than on her," Naru said, then put in onto the shirt of her seifuku. Everyone looked in envy, but Naru seemed to become paler. "All of a sudden I don't feel so great..."

Ranma also didn't feel well, but for different reasons. All of a sudden he'd felt a spike in his danger sense coming directly from Naru. Seeing how she seemed to struggle with something, he opted to try and see if his new ability was of any help with his bad feeling. It had become easier to access it and a with little concentration he managed to activate his sight of life force... and he gasped. What he saw was frightening. Somehow Naru's ki was sucked out of her body and into the flower brooch.

He didn't waste a second. Before anyone could voice a protest, he shoved everyone aside on his way to the now almost alseep Naru, ripped the brooch off her shirt and threw it onto the ground, where it shattered into several pieces.

Naru shot up as if stung by a hornet, again wide awake. "W-what happened?"

Before Ranma could utter a word, the brooch suddenly disintigrated into a pile of dust, leaving behind no trace that it had ever existed in the first place. Everyone looked at the remains of the brooch in astonishment, wondering what was going on.

Ranma didn't like that at all, regarless what was going on. "That thing was leeching on you life force. Good that I removed it just in time."

"Oh, come on! Leeching on her life force? That's impossible!" Akane said in disbelief. Ranma looked at her as if waiting for her to understand. Finally Akane sighed. "Ok, I forgot! You are a walking biological impossibility. I take back what I said."

Sitting back down, Naru shook her head as if trying to clear her head. "I have no idea what had happened. I just all of a sudden filt dizzy and sleepy."

Any more discussion was stopped when the teacher -a choleric man- shouted immediately after entering the classroom that he would not tolerate such a chaos. Everyone scambled to their desks. Ranma however couldn't care less for math right at the moment. He didn't know that Usagi was very pre-occupied with what had happened as well.

And none of them had noticed that the plant in the corner of the room had moved its twigs towards Naru when she'd been in danger, as if trying to reach her.

* * *

_...Hikawa Shrine, that night..._

Having gotten a glass of milk, Rei Hino walked back to her room, where she would wait for the newest broadcast of "Romance at Midnight" to air. She'd listen in longing to all the love letters, but hadn't dared to write one of her own, fearing her grandfather's reaction should he find out.

"Hm?" She'd noticed something moving on the floor. Picking it up, a small, black piglet oinked back at her. "Where did you come from? Well...you're quite the cute guy."

Without thinking, Rei took the piglet with her into her room, setting it onto her bed while waiting for the broadcast to start. She'd always wanted to have a pet -one of the few really girly things she allowed herself to dream of- and the piglet not only was cute, but also seemed to be domesticated and would be a really unusual pet, meaning it would help her to have something to show around.

Rei knew that her fawning over a radio show and wanting a pet was because life frustrated her.

She'd never known a normal family life. She'd at first only been raised by her mother. When she'd died from illness, her useless father at once her handed her off to her grandfather, citing that his political career was more important. The only times she saw him was, when he needed to present the 'caring family father' to the media. Last time she'd been tempted to throw her orange juice into his face. Her grandfather had been more of a father than her biological one would ever be.

This frustration of course had resulted during her growing up to develop quite a temper. Her grandfather ofter had to force her to get extra meditation and the other girls in the private school she was at openly told her that her temper was a force to be reckoned with.

To make things worse, her social life wasn't that great and she still hadn't managed to get a boyfriend. Most simply didn't want to date a miko and the few who did were scared off after meeting her grandfather for the first time, the old man saying that these were not the right kind of boys. So basically she was terribly lonely and therefore latched on things like love shows and now a pet.

Finally the show started. _"This is again Romance at Midnight with Jack Dyte."_

Rei leaned in to listen which love letters would be read this time, but was in for a surprise when just before Dyte could start to read the first one, a woman started to argue with him and told the listeners that basically the show was a sham. Dyte told her that she'd be sorry for that, before the radio went into static.

"Strange..." Rei shook her head. "I guess today's broadcast is off." Seeing no reason to stay up, she turned off the light and went to bed. The piglet seemed really tame and didn't even attempt to run away.

Said piglet was just glad that she'd already changed and thus he wouldn't be in another compromising situation. Being chased by a maniac with a sword had been bad enough. He'd just wait until she was asleep and then would slip away. It had been bad luck that after errecting his camp site, he'd been surprised by rain and then promptly gotten lost, only to end up in this house. At least it wasn't Ranma's house.

So he waited for her to fall asleep... Bad thing that he'd been tired as well and just a little nap seemed to be so inviting.

o

Ranma felt ridiculous, thanks to the current outfit.

Normally had wouldn't care about other people's business, but after the scene in school this morning, he'd been reminded of this monster some time ago, and one of the rules of a marital artist was to protect the weak and innocent. That was one of the few good things his father had taught him, even if the old man himself didn't follow that rule at all.

So he felt it would be good to take a closer look at this broadcast station. He'd read enough western superhero comics borrowed from classmates by now to know, that revealing his ID to the bad guys could be a really bad idea. So had searched through his pack and found a ninja suit complete with mask -he didn't even want to remember where his father got this thing- and to be sure also turned into a girl.

And now here she was, stalking out the FM No. 10 building, wondering if something unusual would happen before she'd sneak in. So far, nothing had happened at all, apart from a female employee entering the building some minutes ago, followed by a... no, she couldn't bring herself think of this little monster's name.

_Looks like nothing does happen at all on the outside..._

**-Booom-** Watching a hole blown into the ceiling, she knew she'd take a closer look. _Nah, thought that too early. At least I didn't make myself look like an idiot for nothing..._

Jumping to a closer roof, she saw with interest this Sailor Moon chick from the last encounter with a monster jumping out of the hole, another female-looking monster close on her heels. Ranma knew at once that she was at the right place. Sneaking onto the roof after another jump, she decided to first watch how Moon would make herself. She'd only attack this... thing if the short-skirted girl would be unable to defend herself.

On the roof meanwhile, Sailor Moon cursed herself for being so careless.

After that scene in the classroom this morning, she couldn't help but to agree with Luna that the Dark Kingdom had to have a role with these strange flower brooches. And at first everything had went according to plan. Thanks to some magical gadget formed like a pen, given to her by Luna with the strict order only to use it for business, she'd been able to disguise herself as a grown-up woman and she also had discovered that their suspicion was true. To her surprise, the villan this time was a man wearing a gray uniform -and he would have looked quite good if not for the fact that he was the enemy- posing as Jack Dyte.

That was when things had gone awry. She'd stormed in without thinking and openly told the audience to not believe a word, causing the fake Dyte to declare this an error and suddenly his assistant had jumped through the soundproof window and turned into a Youma. In the resulting mess of explosions, she'd been forced to transform, but her declaration hadn't impressed the man -obviously a commander- who had introduced himself as Jadeite, before ordering the Youma to kill her. And man, was this monster persistent, blowing holes into the roof while she was running.

"Sailor Moon, your tiara! It's right now your strongest weapon!" Luna called from where she was hiding from the blasts.

"I wish I'd get paid for this..." Taking off her tiara, she quickly spun it and threw it towards the Youma. However, the monster simply evaded it.

"Ha! You missed!" it gloated. What the Youma didn't see was, that like a boomerang the tiara returned back to Sailor Moon, slamming directly into its back. "AAAAARRRRGGGH!"

Ranma watched in sick fascination how the monster was reduced to dust after being cut in half. She'd seen her share of violence, but nothing like this, although it was completely bloodless. However, her attention was drawn to another direction when he saw Sailor Moon facing a blond man in a gray uniform. She felt that this confrontation would be interesting.

"Don't tell me you want to fight against me as well..." he arrogantly said, facing Sailor Moon.

"You can bet I do! Tiara Action!" She didn't waste a moment to throw her spinning tiara towards him, but to her shock, he just raised his hand and the tiara stopped in mid-air, before falling to the floor. "What the... Hey, that's unfair!"

"Haha! Nice try, but little girls like you who pretend to be a Senshi are not in my league," Jadeite mocked her, knowing very well that there never had been a Sailor Moon back in the Silver Millenium.

"I don't have to listen to that!" She tried a jump-kick, but slammed against an invisible force field and bounced onto the ground. "Ow, what was that?"

"I told you... I don't know how exactly you got powers, but you are clearly not a Senshi of old. Not that it matters much when I'm done with you." He slowly advanced towards her, but stopped when his way was blocked by something looking like a ninja.

"Don't you dare..." a clearly female voice warned him.

Jadeite chuckled. "And who are you supposed to be? Ninjette?" he asked her mockingly, making it clear that he didn't take this person serious in the slightest.

Ranma had to admit, this guy had nerves, but what she'd seen so far warned her that he had a lot of tricks up his sleeve and was not to be taken lightly, so she would not become careless. "It doesn't matter who I am. If you want to hurt her, you first have to go through me."

"With pleasure," Jadeite said with a smirk, feeling that this girl was propably suicidal. **-scac-** "Hm, what the...?" he wondered, when a rose easily went through his defense and embedded itself into the floor in front of him. However, there was no one else on the roof.

_Ah, screw it! I have the energy already stored and I don't need a confrontation right now. Queen Beryl will be more interested in what I learned..._ "Looks like I'll kill you next time," he said, before teleporting away.

"Well, at least he knows the final technique..." Ranma commented the retreat, looking to Sailor Moon.

She rolled her eyes when witnessing what happened next. Sailor Moon was looking at this tuxedo-clad nut, who was making yet another corny speech, before taking off and literally flying away over the rooftops. Ranma didn't understand why girls tended to go gaga over something like that. Turning into a girl hadn't gifted her with that knowledge.

"I don't understand what you see in that guy. All he does is throwing roses and making corny speeches..." Ranma commented, while pulling off her mask. It was uncomfortably hot under it.

"He doesn't..." Whatever Sailor Moon wanted to say, it died when looking at Ranma. She barely managed not to blurt out his name, realizing that Sailor Moon had no way to know of his curse. "Uhm... never mind. Thanks for helping out."

"No problem. Maybe you get this guy next time. Well, I'll be around, maybe we meet again," Ranma said, then jumped off the roof and out of sight. She felt that she'd done her good deed for today and would now go back to bed. After all, tomorrow was a school day and there was no need for his mother and Ami to have a reason to scold him.

* * *

_...some minutes later..._

Mamoru Chiba felt an enormous headache coming up. He'd been busy with writing up some last-minute texts, when he'd all of a sudden blacked out. When he'd woken up again, he'd sat on a chair on the balcony.

He tried to make sense of it. This was already the third time he'd had such a blackout and there was no one he could ask what had happened, since he was living alone with no relatives left. Just a 19-year old college student of medicine, nothing out of the ordinary. However, this had changed recently with these blackouts and the nightmares of destruction and a voice that pleaded for him to help. He hadn't been able to make sense of it and his mood had become worse because of it.

His friend Motoki had suggested asking a doctor for help, but he wasn't yet that desperate. Also it didn't fit with anything he could find in his books. He wondered if perhaps he was suffering from a mental illness. He hoped not, his sharp mind was one of the things of which he was proud of. While his inheritance kept him alfoat, he'd come so far through his own work and didn't want to lose that.

"What's happening to me...?" he wondered, while again feeling the headache.

"If you allow me, I can help with this problem."

"Wah?" He'd not expected to hear a woman's voice and jumped up. "Whoever you are, what are you doing in my apartment? Show yourself!"

"No need for hostility. I'm here to help," came from a dark corner of the room, before someone walked out of the shadows.

Mamoru gulped when seeing what the woman looked like. She was wearing something that looked like a hentai version of a sailor fuku and for a moment he'd thought she was one of these hookers who've specialised in unusual tastes. He quickly dismissed the idea when feeling how she radiated dignity and seriousness in spite of her ridiculous outfit. He also had to look twice, but the staff she held on was really shaped like a big key.

Then he remembered that she'd appeared just like that in his living room. "Lady, better explain to me why you've broken into my apartment."

Sailor Pluto rolled her eyes. She'd forgotten how mistrustful Mamoru could be. "Please, do you really think someone dressed like me is here to relieve you of your TV set?"

Taken aback, Mamoru needed some moments, before admitting defeat. "No. No common burglar would dress like that. Still, who are you and what do you mean with you can help?"

"I fear my civilian name has to stay secret for now, I'm called Sailor Pluto when looking like this. As for how I can help... I do know the reason for your recent trouble. If you you wish, I can help you to solve this problem for you."

"I have the feeling that there's a price for this coming up," Mamoru interrupted her.

"Yes. Once you know the truth, there is no going back. Nothing will be like before. Do you still want my help?" she asked.

Mamoru wondered what she was talking about. He only had a health problem, right? On the other hand, the situation already was strange enough, so he doubted that it could become even worse than his fears of being mentally ill. "Nothing can surprise me."

Almost twenty minutes later, Mamoru wanted to eat his words.

"Ok... Let me get this straight... You've told me of this long-gone kingdom and I'm the re-incarnated prince of Earth, needed to battle the powers of darkness?" he asked, wanting to not believe it, but it sounded so true to him. "And the reason I have these headaches and blackouts is, because there's a problem with my powers awakening?"

"Yes, your accident during your childhood and the resulting head injury not only blocked your own memories, but also caused a disturbance with the powers and memories you inherited from Endymion," Pluto explained patiently.

Mamoru shook his head. "This sounds totally crazy... yet I can FEEL it is the truth. I'm uncomfortable with the idea that there are memories of a former life taking over whenever there's danger."

"This is why I am here to help. If you allow me, I can easily fix this problem, thus giving you complete control. It also will restore the clear seperation between your and Endymion's memories, which had been damaged by your accident," Pluto explained.

"Is this important?" Mamoru wondered.

"Yes, otherwise you'd over time turn into Endymion." Seeing Mamoru pale at the thought of being taken over by the memories of a long-dead man, she knew that was his permission to go on. "It'll also return your lost memories to you. You just have to look into the orb on top of my staff, I'll do the rest."

Looking into the red, glowing orb, Mamoru fell into a trance and Pluto closed her eyes to concentrate on the delicate work to repair the damage done years ago. Inside Mamoru's mind, the young man watched what had happened each time he'd blacked out. He was awed by that, until he found himself in a void, watching in amazement a double of himself wearing armour and himself as a child, arguing.

"Leave him alone! It is his life now, your time is over!" the child-Mamoru shouted at the man.

"What do you know? My mission is more important," the man who Mamoru guessed was Endymion, shouted back. "I have a kingdom to gain back."

"You don't get it... Let's let him make the decision," child-Mamoru decided.

"Yeah..." Endymion turned to Mamoru. "You decide which of us is more important."

Mamoru rolled his eyes. "Listen, you two! I don't care what your problem is. Endymion, you are so egoistical that it sickens me. I can't imagine that I'm supposed to be your reincarnation. Do me a favor and stay a memory. You are not me anymore and I'll use your powers to do good, not to errect a kingdom." He then turned to the child. "As for you... You actually belong to me. I think you kept my childhood from me long enough. Come to me."

Endymion grumbled, while fading away, while his child-self hugged him and everything went white.

Opening his eyes, Mamoru felt light-headed because of the rush of old memories returning and the presence of Endymion fading away. Everything was so clear all of a sudden, although he also felt embarrassment over the persona of Tuxedo Mask and his corny speeches. "That's... incredible!"

Pluto allowed herself a small smile. "You have discovered a bigger world. Your powers will grow the better your control gets... Now that you are in full control, will you aid us in our battle against the powers of darkness?"

Mamoru remembered what she'd told him and what the consequences otherwise could be. "I got these powers for a reason, right? I'd be really an idiot to sit back and let the bad guys take over the world. However, don't expect me to stay mysterious with the other Senshi. I prefer to play with my cards visible."

"I don't think this is going to be a problem."

Pluto however was really curious how this would play out. She'd managed make sure that neither would Mamoru turn into Endymion, nor would he become a joke in battle. Also, with destiny out of the way, maybe being comerades in their battle against evil would allow him and Usagi to develop a natural relationship, especially with Usagi being older than in the original timeline. She imagined that Mamoru revealing his identity to her should be very interesting.

* * *

_...in the morning, Hikawa Shrine..._

Looking at the piglet in her hands, Rei knew that she'd to first ask her grandfather before she could keep it as a pet. That meant a good first impression, including that it had to be clean. So she walked into the furo with the still sleeping piglet in her arms and turned on the warm water, setting the tiny animal down before disrobing.

Finally the furo was filled. Again picking up the piglet, she gently woke it up. "Ok, little guy. Lets get you clean first... Hey, what's wrong?" she wondered, when all of a sudden it started to squirm. Deciding that it was propably just the surprise of waking up in her arms, she decided to move along anyway.

Elsewhere in the house, Grandfather Hino set up the tea water, when suddenly...

**"EEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!"**

That was clearly his granddaughter screaming in terror! Grabbing a broom, he was ready to run to her rescue, when suddenly another scream echoed through the house, even louder than the first one.

**"YOU PERVERT BASTARD!"**

He wondered for a second what this could mean, when suddenly he saw two people bursting out of the back door into the yard of the shrine, and the sight made his blood pressure spike. There was Rei, red with anger and barely holding her sleeping robe shut with one hand and holding her baseball bat in the other, chasing a naked boy. There were few things that could rile him up, but his granddaughter being molested was one of them.

Outside, Rei was chasing the naked boy. She didn't know how exactly he'd disguised himself as a piglet, but her female fury was burning bright and she right now wanted nothing more than to smash in his head with her baseball bat. She'd went through several embarrassing situations in the past, but this one was definitely the worst.

"Look, this is all just one big misunderstanding..." he tried to explain.

"I'll give you misunderstanding! Right onto your empty head!" Rei roared in fury, while swinging her bat.

"You fiend!"

Ryoga felt that now would be a good time for making his exit, when seeing an old man in the robes of a priest and holding a boom, storm out of the house. The man looked ready to kill him on the spot. His decision made, he ran into the forest surrounding the shrine, his pusuers hot on his trail. It didn't seem likely that they'd give up easily.

Running in a straight line, he suddenly saw before him... _Stinging nettles! Ranma, that's all your fault!_

Running through the nettles naked, Ryoga felt like screaming, the nettles biting him in places better left unmentioned, but grinded his teeth together. Then he finally closed in on the outer wall of the shrine grounds. Seeing this as his chance to escape, he jumped over the high wall and out of sight.

"Eeek!" "A pervert!" "Get him!" "Who do you think you are?" **-Baff- -Ooof- -Slap-**

Having stopped in front of the wall, Rei and her grandfather listened to what happened on the other side of the wall. They both knew that on the other side was the bus stop and right at the moment there'd be students of the high schools and colleges waiting for the next bus. By the sounds of it, they were not too happy with the pervert's presence as well.

Almost an hour later, Ryoga crawled into the tent of his camp site.

How he had managed to find it in record time, he didn't even want to know. And despite it being morning, the day was already over for him after his ordeal.

First he'd had to run through a field of stinging nettles, then he'd gotten beaten up by a horde of schoolgirls and their angry boyfriends. After that, he'd somehow ended up in the schoolyard of an all-girls school and had gotten another beating from an angry mob, before stumbling into the garden of a house with dojo. The father of the young woman he'd scared with his sudden appearance, he was clearly a martial artist, had almost lynched him.

Nursing his numerous scratches, blisters and bruises, Ryoga decided that for the moment Ranma was less important. For now he only wanted to hide in his tent until he'd manage to overcome his fear of getting another day like this.

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"Awakening and Surprise"**_


	8. Awakening and Surprise

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

Things change significantly

**I'm sorry that it took me almost two months to write this chapter, but during the writing process it grew and grew, until it was at the current size. Normally I don't write chapters this long, but since it is a turning point in the story, I'll make an exception.**

**Note that specific notes are at the end of the chapter, to avoid spoilers.**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Awakening and Surprise**

**(Authors note: The first two scenes happen at the morning after the clash on the radio building, so that there is no confusion.)**

_Ranma knew what was happening right at the moment was downright wrong and absurd, yet he -or better, she at the moment- didn't do anything at all against it._

_And the situation was beyond absurd. Here she was in the girls' shower room, acting as if it was the most natural thing in the world, meaning that she right now was busy with taking a shower. Interestingly enough, the warm water didn't turn her back to male. All the other girls seemed to take her presence for granted as well and didn't make any attempt to cover up._

_Ranma's body was moving on its own, as if moved by someone else, but inwards she grew more and more horny. The sight of all these naked girls, their bodies glistering with water, was having a huge impact on her. The round butts, breasts of different sizes and variously hairy private areas called to her to touch them. However, she didn't and instead her attention turned to a newcomer in the shower room._

_There she stood, Ami in her birthday suit._

_Ami didn't seem bothered by her nudity in the slightest, while Ranma couldn't help but to admire her; now that she had no secrets from her. Her pulse quickened when Ami approached her with a smile, joining her under the warm spray of the shower. Ranma noticed that all the girls now had turned their attention to them, their warm smiles of approval being obvious._

_While all the female nudity around her had already made her horny as hell, the sight of Ami in the nude topped it all. Ranma drank in every bit of her as she approached. She gave her another warm smile, before sneaking her arms around Ranma, their wet and slippery bodies pressing together in the most pleasurable ways. Ranma gasped and Ami used to opportunity to seal her open mouth with her own, their wet tongues starting an intimate erotic dance._

_Then it became too much for Ranma, and she..._

_..._

With a gasp, Ranma woke up. Desoriented, she needed a moment before realizing that the whole thing had been a really weird dream and she was in her bed. Her, since Ranma had been too tired last night after returning home to bother with turning back.

It had been a more than bizarre dream, far more than the usual stuff when she at least would be male and also never before had Ami been part of these dreams. That it had happened in such a way was disturbing, although it could have been worse -like her actually being a girl in the boys' shower room, _that _would have been a nightmare. She even felt a little guilty for dreaming of Ami like this. It was not that she thought of her THAT way, right?

Finally a little more awake, Ranma felt something and groaned in annoyance. "Ahhh, man! Happens to me even as a girl. What a mess..."

She'd tried to tell herself it wouldn't happen, but now she knew for sure that like boys, girls made a mess into their underwear when having one of_ these _dreams, even though the mechanism of how exactly the mess was created was different. Her boxers were now only good for laundry, as they always were after such an episode.

She risked a glimpse to the glowing numbers of her alarm clock. "Oh, great... half an hour before regularly waking up."

Ranma knew that there would be no more sleep, so she could already do some warm-ups after changing, before the morning sparring. After all, ripping into the old man was always a good way to improve her mood.

* * *

_...Dark Kingdom..._

"You seem to lose a Youma on each energy gathering mission, Jadeite. Thankfully your energy harvests more than make up for this little detail. However, this just serves to keep our master going. What is the status of the big plan you promised?" Queen Beryl demanded from Jadeite.

Jadeite had asked for an audience as soon as possible after returning to the Dark Kingdom, since he wanted to share the news, but it seemed that for the moment he first had to statisfy his queen's demand for information about his project. Good that he knew how his men were doing on it, so that he could give her a date.

"We are making progress, my queen. We can show you the prototype to the heartpiece of our plan in less than two weeks," Jadeite reported, then waited for a reaction.

"Good..." Then she noticed that Jadeite obviously had more to say than just that. "Well, now that this is out of the way, what is so important you asked for an audience?"

"My queen, during my recent operation the Senshi interfered again. I gathered information but it conflicts with what we know. Despite her showing the magical signature of a Senshi, even though it only is a weak one at the moment, she calls herself Sailor Moon, although we know there never had been a Senshi of the Moon," Jadeite reported, then waited for a reaction.

Beryl looked thoughtful into her crystal ball. "A Senshi of the Moon? First the obvious fake princess calling herself Sailor V, and now a Senshi of the Moon... Our enemy is smarter than I thought."

"Queen Beryl?" Jadeite wondered.

She held up her hand to silence him. "See, Jadeite, it is very simple. Our enemies again want to set us onto a wrong trail. A Senshi of the Moon; they want to make us believe that this is the re-incarnated Princess Serenity. This is such a bad decoy it is almost laughable."

Jadeite felt like hitting himself. Why hadn't he thought about that? "Then what is to be done about this little nuisance?"

"When you have the chance, get rid of her. She is disturbing our operations but right now is only a minor threat. Otherwise concentrate on energy gathering. Do you already have new ideas how to statisfy our master's needs?" Beryl demanded.

"Yes... I boldly plan to execute two plans at the same time. After all, this brat can only be at one place at a time. My servants Garoben and Derela will help me to pull off this gamble. I plan to prey on the weakness of people to be famous and the huge pressure in the educational system. Both release lots of energy. Energy, that is very useful to us," Jadeite explained his new plans.

"Sounds more like a sure way to defeat."

Beryl and Jadeite looked to the entrance to see another general, this one having long brown hair, enter the throne room, causing the gathered Youma to start gossip what he could want. The new general walked up to beside Jedeite and smirked arrogantly at him. Jadeite scrowled back, showing that there was no love between them, only competition and status jaleously.

"What are you doing here, Nephrite? Go back watching your stars," Jadeite growled. _Who does this clown think he is? _he silently added.

"Oh, I think it is far more entertaining to watch you setting up your own failure," Nephrite arrogantly said. "Queen Beryl, why do you keep this loser around?"

"Despite what you think, Jadeite has gathered enough energy to statisfy our master's needs for the moment. You on the other hand have made no progress in getting information about the Silver Crystal through the stars," Queen Beryl cooly told Nephrite.

The look Nephrite gave Jadeite for his smirk of victory couldn't have been more deadly.

* * *

_...school, some days later..._

"Is it me, or do the strange events at this school start to add up?" Ranma wondered, while looking at the newest strangeness from their spot in the school yard.

"It's not just you. It seems that almost half the school has gone crazy over this 'Become a Superstar' stuff initiated by Mikan. Just look at it, even Akane has become crazy enough to participate and actually perform together with Umino in a singing duett," Naru pointed out, while looking at the makeshift stage.

Ranma didn't need to be told that.

It had begun two days ago, when teenage superstar Mikan had called out a competition to look for the newest emerging telents in showbusiness that she would sponsor. Ranma had watched with a gag reflex how numerous students had went instantly gaga over this and showed embarrassing performances to enter the competition. He couldn't understand what was so great about humiliating yourself, and even being near Mikan's sortie had given him a strange buzzing in the ears that had caused him to develop a headache and flee the place after a while.

Cue in his horror when he'd discovered later that Akane had also caught whatever it was and had tried to persuade him into singing with her on stange - with him as a girl to top it off! Of course he had declined and Akane had found a second choice in Umino, as strange as that was. After all, she was supposed to still dislike him and that guy had a horrible singing voice, as shown right now with the two of them giving a free performance on that makeshift stage. Even at a distance, his off-key singing hurt his ears.

Everyone involved in the contest somehow had become a huge primadonna, complete with the ego. That had been hard on the others, as they even did show off their ego during lessons. Well, at least until Ms. Haruna had shouted loud enough to blow some of them off their seats. After that they behaved during lessons. Ranma had asked how she did that after classes and she'd sheepishly admitted that she'd taken a summer course for teachers that worked on strengthening and maximal usage of the lungs and vocal chords. Ranma had jokingly dubbed it 'Martial Arts Teaching'.

"As if I didn't know. Wonder what went into her to humiliate herself like that," Ranma said, while shaking his head in disbelief. Akane didn't strike him as a girl that desperate for attention.

"I actually have no idea and Usagi seems all of a sudden so awfully busy that she doesn't even have the time to talk to me any longer. It's as if something is always on her mind recently," Naru answered with a hint of disappointment.

Ranma again shook his head at such foolishness, but then noticed that Ami hadn't said anything the entire time, instead she was staring at a letter and looking a little lost. "Ami? Everything all right?" Ranma asked her.

"Wha...? Oh!" That finally shook her out of her thoughts. "No, everything is all right. It's just that invitation I got. The Crystal Cram School is inviting the most successful students to test out their new computer-assisted Crystal Seminar and they even sent me the disk for it," she explained, holding up a floppy disk.

"Crystal Cram School? I heard of it but could only dream about joining. Their fees are ungodly expensive, even for my mother," Naru gasped.

"I thought you were done with cram schools?" Ranma wondered.

"I do, but it would be rude of me to decline. Sorry, but that means we can't learn together today." Seeing Ranma's disappointed look, she felt like she'd kicked a puppy. It seemed that Ranma valued her company a lot and didn't like the idea of her chosing a cram school -where she didn't even want to be- over him.

"Maybe I just make a token appearance and claim that I get headaches from looking at the screen for too long. You wait outside until I can excuse myself, what do you think?" she offered, hopinng it would do the trick.

I was interesting how fast his mood improved when hearing this suggestion.

Naru could only shake her head when seeing this. To her it was crystal clear, but they seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that they both liked each other more than just friends. Perhaps they didn't notice because they were both socially awkwand and not used to gain attraction from the opposite sex. In a way it was funny that the shyest and most withdrawn girl of the whole school got the most desirable hunk.

Ranma then offered some sandwich slices his mother had made to Ami and the girl beamed. One thing Naru had learned was, that Ami had a huge weakness for sandwich slices. No, she loved them! That was underlined right then by Ami putting an entire slice into her mouth (how did she get it open so wide?)and chewing a little before swallowing it down whole. Naru felt that this should be anatomically impossible, especially when seeing that buldge slowly travelling down Ami's throat, until it had finally passed her neck.

Ami was a very well-mannered girl, but as soon as it came to sandwich slices, she ate like a pig.

Looking around, she spotted Usagi and her cat watching the scene on the stage. _She's right there, and yet she acts as if I'm not present at all... Usagi, what happened that you are suddenly so distant to me?_

Right at that moment, the performance ended and Akane and Umino announced they'd be at the competition in the Chan-Chan theatre this afternoon, where the winners would be determined. Naturally this caused a fury of protests from the others, who also were putting their weight into it and shouts of sheer contempt at each other errupted.

"Jeez, they act as if their lives depend on it," Ranma said in disbelief. "Thank all goodness I'm not that single-minded."

"Ranma, didn't you say several times you want to be the best there is and that you live martial arts? Seems to be pretty single-minded," Ami innocently asked and then enjoyed Ranma's face coloring when he fruitlessly tried to refute it.

"Look...uhm... That's something different..." he stammered, trying to find a way to prove her wrong. Ami was so good at finding weak points in what people say.

"Really? How?" she asked further, still looking like innocence incarnate.

Naru barely held back a giggle when seeing Ranma stuggling with an answer. Ami propably would let him hanging a little longer, before showing mercy. The chemistry between these two was really interesting. Then she again looked to where she saw Usagi sitting. She blinked, wondering if she saw right. It looked as if Usagi was talking to her cat.

_Well, if she wants to... _Naru thought, remembering that many people talked to their pets.

Regardless, she'd already made the decision to be at the Chan-Chan this afternoon. Not because of real interest, she was convinced thatmost of the performances would be horrible, but to watch out for her classmates that they wouldn't fall too hard when being rejected in the end.

None of them had noticed Minako Aino watching the whole scene on the stage with interest.

* * *

_...later that day, Crystal Cram School..._

Looking around, Ami couldn't help but to notice that she'd read of all the students sitting at the computers. They were the top of the heap of her grade in all of Minato and all over the various school papers. Now she felt flattered but still would go through with her plan. After all, Ranma was waiting outside for her and she didn't want to let him wait for too long.

While putting the floppy disk into the computer she was sitting at and listening only with one ear to the monotone instructions of the woman supervising the demonstration, she couldn't help to feel uncomfortable when looking at her surroundings. These teenagers who looked utterly exhausted and stared single-mindedly at the screens; that was what she had left behind. She shuddered at the memory. Only now could she see that while these students were successful, their expressions spoke of emptiness. They were just living for learrning, as she had been.

_No... Never again,_ she vowed to herself.

Had Ranma not entered her life, she'd be like them. She could only now see how destructive that was to someone and felt trapped in this room, surrounded by reminders of how she could have ended up. She just wanted to get out as fast as possible and do something more constructive than that together with Ranma. Just some minutes of fake work as an excuse and then she'd be up and gone.

Looking at the screen she tried to appear to be busy, but that was difficult when she started to hear an irritating low-key buzzing sound and everything on the screen seemed to melt together into a swirling display of color, giving her a slight headache. She right then wanted to report the computer problem, seeing an easy way out, when she looked around... and gasped.

Around her, the other students stared at the screens like zombies, their eyes empty of any emotion, as if mesmerized. Their skin had turned significantly paler, as if having missed the sun for weeks. They all looked seriously ill.

"What is going on?" she wondered while getting up.

"It looks like you are a bad student..."

Turning, Ami saw the instructor approach her. But in mid-step, the woman changed. In horror she watched her turning into a two-and-a-half meter tall humanoid, female monster with orange skin, dark blue hair and sharp claws on her hands. It was a truely frightening sight at how this... thing towered over her.

Ami did the one natural thing... "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" ...She screamed in terror.

**-crrraaaacckk-**

Turning to where the sound of splintering wood came, they saw Ranma, who looked ready for anything.

Ranma had waited outside when hearing Ami scream in terror and fearing the worst, he hadn't hesitated to destroy the locked door with a well-placed kick. However, what he saw now topped what he'd feared could have happened. There was another of these monsters, having obviously attacked the students, who now was threatening Ami. To make things worse, unlike the last one, this thing was huge and also looked quite mean and well-suited for combat.

For now Ranma couldn't care less. "Don't you dare to touch her."

"Well, well, well... Who do we have here? You don't look very bright," the Youma mocked him.

"I'm bright enough to predict that you'll end up as a heap of broken bones if you don't back off," Ranma returned, disliking this monster's aura of superiority.

"A brute at that... You propably don't even know Newton's discovery," she mocked further, hoping he'd screw this up.

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Gravity of course, that was part of my entrance exam."

Garoben scrowled. "A lucky guess, nothing more!" She then saw Ami trying to sneak away. "You won't!" Without warning, she seized her by the head and when she saw Ranma about to jump in... "And you get bad grades!"

Ranma barely managed to jump aside when something missed him by mere centimeters. He saw that it were school record cards and would have laughted, if not for the fact that these things were razor-sharp and had easily embeded themselves into the wall. Thankfully he was fast and agile while running and jumping out of the way of the cards that the monster fired off in a machinegun-like manner.

"Stand still, you little pest!" Garoben hissed.

"Do I look that stupid?" Ranma shot back. There would be no wisecracking this time, he was far too angry over what this monster was doing with Ami and also this thing was far more dangerous than the last one. He had no wish to be cut into pieces.

To make matters worse, he had to think of the mesmerized students, who sat drooling and with empty eyes before their computers. He just couldn't go all-out as the risk of accidently injuring someone was simply too big. That meant he had to go close to prevent colleteral damage and help poor Ami to get away from that thing.

There was a second of delay, while the monster prepared for another volley, and he used it.

Running up and then jumping off the wall, Ranma put his strength into a sharp jump-kick directly at the arm that held poor Ami. With a sickening snap, the monster's arm was broken, the bone shattered, and she let go of Ami, letting out a short scream of pain, while Ranma backflipped away. Only a moment later he came to the conclusion that maybe that hadn't been such a good idea after all, when the monster's eyes burned with fury.

"You injured me..." she hissed. No mere human had ever managed to do that, and it hurt like hell. "Injuring me was a mistake!"

Ranma watched in sick fascination how the broken arm morphed into a mallet and his danger sense screamed. However, he'd hesitated a second too long as the mallet already slammed into him and he flew face-first through a window and vanished from sight, blood visible on the sharp edges of the broken window. Garoben smirked sadistically, then noticed the girl trying to get away.

"Oh no, you won't!" Grabbing Ami by the neck with her other hand, she shoved her face against a screen. "Your energy is now ours!"

Ami didn't know what was happening, but it couldn't be good. In panic she tried to get away from the screen, but the Youma held her firm and then she felt it. It felt as if her very being was touched and molested by a dirty, old pervert. It felt horrible; she felt completely violated; and yet she was helpless. In panic she begged for someone to help her.

Her panic spiked and a dam broke within her.

"What is that?" Garoben hissed, when seeing that this girl's energy couldn't be drained. Turning her around, she held the panicking Ami by the throat. "How are you blocking my attempts to..."

Garoben stopped when all of a sudden something started to glow bright blue on the girl's forehead. Looking at it, she saw that it was a symbol. A symbol she'd already seen before. Her eyes widened when recognising the sigl of Mercury, but before she could do anything the sigl suddenly flared and...

**-BLAAAAM-** "AHHHHRRRRRR" **-CRRRAAAASSSHHH-**

... a bright blue beam of pure energy blasted out of the sigl, hitting Garoben square on! She was blasted across the room, before being smashed right through the wall, vanishing from sight.

_Have I done that? _Ami wondered with her eyes wide-open.

Then she noticed something appearing, hovering in front of her in a blue glow. It looked like a wand that comfortably would fit into one hand and had the symbol of Mercury on top of it. Something compelled her to reach out to it; to take it and hold it.

Righ at that moment, Ranma stormed back in through the door. Falling from the fifth floor hadn't been the problem -after all he'd fallen bigger hights than that- and he'd been able to land on his feet. However, his face had numerous deep and bloody gashes thanks to the sharp edges of the broken window. He wouldn't allow this monster to hurt poor Ami, but stopped dead when seeing no monster, a huge hole in the opposite wall and Ami picking something out of the thin air.

He wanted to shout to her to not touch whatever it was, but stopped himself when something compelled him not to... whispering that she was doing the right thing. Doing nothing, he watched Ami take hold of what he now recognised as a small wand, looking at it as if in a trance, before holding it over her head with both hands.

"Mercury Power, make up!"

Ranma was blinded for a split-second by a bright flash and when he was able to see again... he blushed heavily. _Ah man, she'll kill me... but what a view!_

Ami was still in the same pose, but her clothes had vanished and she now stood there in her birthday suit. He got a full frontal and her pose of holding the wand with both hands over her head and her legs wide apart didn't leave anything to the imagination. He couldn't look away... Despite feeling guilty for it, he drank in every detail of her body.

She was beautiful. Beautiful in a girl-next-door sense.

Ranma took in everything. Her modestly sized and very appealing breasts, her well-rounded hips and her hair-covered private area. He even noticed -as strange as him noticing such a thing was- that Ami wasn't shaving her armpit hair. He had to admit, she looked even better than what he'd seen in his dream.

Thankfully for Ranma's nerves, this state of nudity only lasted mere three seconds, although it had seemed much longer to him. Water was flowing down from the wand over Ami, forming something that looked like what that Sailor Moon chick had been wearing, only the color scheme was different, with red replaced by blue. Ranma wondered what was going on, why Ami had turned into one of these girls in a microskirt.

The newly-awakened Sailor Mercury unconsciously put the transformation wand into her subspace pocket and gasped when looking down. "What happened to me?"

"Damn it, another Senshi-brat!" Looking to the hole, they saw the monster stepping out of it, looking downright pissed. "Why can't you do-gooders stay dead?" she growled, while morphing her arm into an axe.

Mercury barely managed to jump aside before the axe smashed into the floor where she'd been a moment ago. She was running on instinct and barely noticed Ranma, who ran to her side. It was as if she had a vague understanding what to do and the shock of the transformation had made her rational mind retreat for the moment. Crossing her arms, the room suddenly was filled with a thick fog, obscuring everything more than half a meter away.

The Youma tried to orient herself, but suddenly she got a bone-shattering kick from the left. She swiped her weapon, but the attacker had already retreated into the fog. This repeated itself several times, with Garoben becoming more angry each time... and filled with more pain. "You cowardly little rat! Show yourself!"

"I'm not that stupid!" Ranma knew the fog was to his advantage, as he could fight alone by hearing, but the monster seemed to heal pretty fast and he wondered if he could keep this up for a longer time. "Ami, whatever you plan to do, do it soon!" he called to where he knew she was by trusting his hearing.

Sailor Mercury didn't know what to do. The fog had been on instict, but now she felt helpless, since this had all been dumped into her lap and she had no clue to do anything else besides fog. She surprisingly had little trouble to see Ranma and the Youma through the fog, yet struggled to come up with something else, even though she felt it at the back of her mind.

**-riip-** "Ahh!"

In horror she saw that this time the monster had only missed barely and caused a gash in Ranma's jacket. In panic, she thrusted her hands forward. "NOOO!"

Ranma jumped away when he heard her cry out, and that was good that way, as suddenly the fog evaporated and a sphere of pulsing, blue energy left the girl's hands. Ranma could feel that it was cold... so very cold. The monster reacted too late and was hit by the sphere directly into the chest.

"Ahhhhrg! What is this?" Garoben screamed, when suddenly starting from her feet she was frozen solid. "No, no, noooooo..."

Ranma watched in sick fascination how theYouma got completely shock-frozen. He couldn't believe that Ami had done this, but he wasn't yet in a mood to ponder this, as he didn't want to risk that thing somehow freeing itself. He had sworn to protect all life, but seeing these monsters explosing into dust when getting destroyed, he by now really doubted if they were living beings in the first place. Also regardless what they were, they obviously had little regard for life. So he didn't regret what he was doing right then.

**-Skkkkllliirrrkkklllll- **A well-placed hit shattered the frozen Youma, the tiny fragments turning into frozen dust.

Ranma looked at the scattered ice pieces for a moment, before looking around. All the students seemed to have been freed by the monster's destruction and had fallen unconscious, still looking quite sick. Then he looked to Ami and saw that the girl seemed to have a meltdown, now that the danger was over, looking scared and confused at what she was wearing.

"Ami...?" he carefully asked.

She looked at him, close to tears. "What... what happened to me? Ranma, how did I do that?"

"I honestly have no idea..." He then stopped when hearing a police car pulling up to the building. "Ah, man! They must've seen me go through that window! We can't let them see you like this... Ami, do you trust me?"

"Y-yes, but why... woooaahhh!" Ami squealed in surprise when suddenly he threw her over his right shoulder, while grabbing their bags with the left. It wasn't the most dignified position for her, but right now Ranma had little choice and he just tried not to look at her close-by butt.

Running up the stairs to the roof, already hearing someone at the entrance door, he quickly jumped off to the next one, wanting to get distance between them and the police. He knew Ami was not taking his roofjumping well when hearing her scream of terror after the first jump, but he had little choice. He would comfort her once they were at a safe distance.

Two dozen roofs later, he gently sat her down. She was still shivering from the whole thing, additionally to how scared she already was. Finally she looked at him. "R-Ranma... What happened to me? How can I return to normal?"

He could already seen the tears in her eyes. If there was one thing he was weak against, it was crying girls. She also was his friend and he really felt for her, when seeing how she took this strange transformation badly. It seemed having this happen to herself was something she couldn't deal with. In a way he could relate. After falling into the spring, he had seemed to be angry, but that was a front to hide how scared and confused he'd been. He could imagine that right now she was as scared as he had been the first time.

After hesitating for a moment, he embraced her, and the dam broke.

Quaking while she held on him, all of her fear and confusion poured out and she cried, the tears turning into a neverending stream. And yet, despite everything she was going through at the moment, she felt that at least she was safe while being held in his arms.

* * *

_...at the same time at the Chan-Chan..._

"Strange, no one else here..." Usagi wondered, while standing in front of the Chan-Chan theatre.

"Exactly. If it is as I suspect, then Jadeite has lured all these poor souls into a trap to steal all of their energy. So better..." Luna stopped. "Company."

Turning around, Usagi saw Naru approaching. Instantly she felt guilty for ignoring Naru recently. It had started right after that episode with the flower brooches, where naru nearly had become a victim of Jadeite's scheme. So Usagi had had the idea that maybe if she'd hold some distance to Naru, she wouldn't be drawn into her trouble. However, seeing the look Naru gave her, she now regretted this decision.

"Uhm... hello, Naru," Usagi lamely said, feeling unable to say more.

"Hell, Naru? You give me the cold shoulder for days, and that's all you now say to me?" Naru asked deadpan.

It wasn't that she was angry at Usagi... more disappointed. They'd been friends for ten years and had always shared their secrets and helped each other. But recently she'd noticed a change in her, with Usagi suddenly becoming less open. The current episode was the peak of it. Naru felt a little hurt by it, as if Usagi didn't trust her any longer and shut her out of her life.

If there was one talent Usagi had, then noticing when someone was unhappy. "Naru... I... I didn't want to hurt you. Please believe me..."

Usagi stuggling to come up with the right words was a clear sign that she truely felt sorry for acting like a jerk toward her. Staying annoyed at her would be downright mean. "Look, I don't know why you did it, and you can explain that to me later. For now, let us watch and hope that they won't humiliate themselves too much."

Usagi let out a breath of relief that Naru seemed to forgive her.

However, inside they were greeted with a downright creepy scene.

The theatre seats were filled humanoid-looking shades who were busy with appauding, while on the stage all the contestants gave their very best at the same time. The cacophaony of bad singing hurt their ears, while the acts on the stage were simply embarrassing. However, then, like puppets whose strings were cut, the people on the stage collapsed and the applause of the shades stopped.

"Usagi, what's going on here?" Naru asked in worry, having no wish to be in another monster attack. Getting nearly strangled to death in the first one was more than enough.

**-Blom-** Startled they saw that suddenly the door had slammed shut and the shades had vanished, leaving them to be confronted with a mean-looking Mikan standing in front of the stage. "Mikan?" Usagi wondered.

'Mikan' chuckled. "Oh, Mikan is taking a nap in her bath tub and I'm her replacement..." In horror they saw Mikan morphing into another monster, this one having green, glass-like skin, a face like a goblin and a blond ponytail, wearing a purple dress. "And since you now know the truth, you have to die, before I suck these fools completely dry."

"A monster!" Naru gasped in terror, while the Youma slowly came closer.

Usagi meanwhile not only was scared because of the Youma, but also because of the fact that it was either to die, or to reveal herself to Naru and admit that she'd withheld this from her the entire time. Yet when she saw Luna, who was hiding between the seats, gave her a nod to show that there was little other choice, she held onto her brooch.

"Naru... please forgive me."

Naru wondered for a moment what Usagi could mean, when suddenly she errupted into a sea of light that forced the Youma to take several steps back. She saw then that Usagi's clothes had vanished and for a few seconds, her friend was utterly naked, before the light that radiated out of her brooch hugged her body and formed a uniform that Naru was surprised to see on Usagi. She wondered why despite the difference in being only what she was wearing, that she hadn't made the connection between Usagi and Sailor Moon.

She gaped at her. "Usagi... you are Sailor Moon?"

Moon looked guilty, knowing that Naru propably won't like that this had been kept from her. "Now you know why I'm so distant... I'm sorry for keeping this from you."

"Well, well, well... Looks like I get something extra out of this. A Senshi brat," Derela gloated, after getting over the surprise. "It was stupid of you to come here."

Moon barely managed to shove Naru out of the way, before the Youma hit her hard, throwing her against the wall. Sailor Moon hadn't expected this move, as normally the monsters weren't that direct. However, she had no time to think about it, as she had to avoid getting hit by something the Youma had spat out.

She looked in disgust at the sticky mess. "Ehh, that's gross!"

"No one ever complained!" the Youma laughed, before hunting Sailor Moon down the row of seats, hovering above the floor.

Moon hadn't expected things to turn out like this, with her being just on the run. Boy, Pluto would give her a lecture for this later. Right now she was hardly heroic, being hunted through a theatre by a monster who spat some sort of sticky goo in her direction. She felt that would fictional heroines like Wonder Woman see her now, they would propably shake their heads at this display.

_That's one of these days my mother warned me about, _she silently cursed.

Right then the hunt ended when the Youma swooped down and slammed Moon against the wall. Moon turned around, only to get goo onto her hands and to her horror it not only stuck them to the wall, but it also quickly hardened into a glass-like substance which yet was unbreakable, regardless how much she tried. Instead for her effords, the monster did the same to her legs, immobilising her completely.

"Urgh! Let me go you goblin!" Moon cursed in a mix of anger and fear.

"Tsk... such a dirty mouth. Looks like I have to plug it," she mocked, before spitting goo over Moon's mouth which hardened at once, silencing her. "Let's see... Hmmmm, surch delicate skin. I wonder if master Jadeite would appreaciate me giving it to him as a gift," she mused, while tracing her claws over Moon's skin, whose eyes widened in fear.

"Leave her alone!"

"Hm...?" Turning to the source of the voice, she saw the other girl facing her with no fear in her eyes. "You must be really stupid to think you can do anything against me."

"Maybe I am stupid, but I'd rather die trying to help my friend, than cowering in some corner,"Naru said with as much courage as she could muster, which wasn't that much.

She actually was scared shitless, but something inside her compelled her to stand for Usagi. While she felt disappointment that her friend her kept such a big secret from her, that was no excuse to let this monster harm her. She herself wondered a little where she suddenly got this courage, it was as if there was something just out of her reach, waiting to be released.

_I must be completely suicidal..._ Naru thought, while facing the monster.

"What do you want to do? Bite me?" Derela mocked, while slowly advancing, not feeling threatened in the slightest.

On the stage meanwhile, one of the participants was not unconscious. However, Akane felt like having pudding in her legs, as if she hadn't slept in days. Yet, the inviting prospect of sleep didn't win over her confusion. When she'd collapsed it was as if a veil had been removed from her eyes and all of a sudden, her recent actions looked downright idiotic to her, making her wonder why she'd done them in the first place. It was as if she hadn't been herself.

_Damn, I acted like a zombie hell-bent on humiliating myself,_ she'd thought, but right now her mind was reeling with what happend in front of her.

She'd seen Usagi transforming into... well, she didn't know exactly what, although it had some resemblance to that Sailor V-girl in the newspapers, and confront a monster. That however had helped her little and now Naru was stupid enough to provoke the monster. It was her job as a martial artist to protect people, but right now she'd be lucky to stand on her legs, so she was forced into the role of the spectator.

The Youma meanwhile had closed in on Naru. "Any last words?" she said, flashing her claws. "Otherwise it's now time for fresh human steak."

That broke Naru's courage. Naru lost the contents of her bladder right at that moment, but she didn't care about that right now. The courage she'd felt was suddenly turning into panic, fear so raw that it touched upon the most primitive parts of her brain. Eyes wide, she let out a scream of purest fear.

Derela grinned, now that pathetic girl had the right reaction and it had been long ago since the last time she'd caused someone to piss herself. She was about to slice her into strips, when suddenly... "Argghh, what's this?" she screamed, when suddenly something wrapped around her arms and legs, immobilising her.

Naru looked in wonder at how the plants in the theatre had suddenly grown into vines that ensarled the monster, preventing it from hurting her. She then felt something rising inside herself; something that felt alien and yet familiar. And... it felt good, as if she got refreshened by a sudden energy surge in her body.

The Youma still struggled, but then hissed when seeing a bright-brown sigl flare up on the girl's forehead. It looked a lot like the symbol of Venus, but the left half of the circle was missing It instead looked like a sickle. She recognised it too well. "No, it can't be you! Impossible!"

Something appeared out of thin air and hovered in front of Naru. It was a sickle that could be held with one hand. Naru felt compelled to take it, but hesitated. She didn't know what would happen to her once she'd touch this strange object.

"Take it. It is yours alone to use."

Looking to the floor, Naru's eyes widened when seeing that this came from Luna, Usagi's cat. "You can talk?"

"Explanations can come later. Take it... It won't do you any harm and will give you the power to help Usagi!" Luna urged her, hoping that her suspicion was true. After all, it would be so unexpected to see this warrior re-emerge.

This was too weird, but Naru nonetheless took the floating sickle and something compelled her to hold it above her head. "Ceres Power, make up!"

Everyone watched how in a flash of light Naru's clothes vanished and for several seconds she stood there, naked, before vines grew from the sickle and wrapped themselves arbound her body, forming a Senshi uniform. It did look a lot like Sailor Moon's, but the color scheme was various shades of brown and her boots had laces on the front.

There were different reactions.

Sailor Moon was astonished that her friend Naru was one of them. Pluto had never even mentioned a Sailor Ceres, so this had come right out of the blue. Yet, part of her was relieved that now she would no longer have to keep any secrets from her friend.

Luna felt that perhaps things were starting to look brighter. She'd never expected that the shunned one, the Senshi thought lost, would re-emerge. And in a way she felt that maybe with her friend now a comerade in arms, Usagi wouldn't struggle so much in her duties.

Akane felt that things were getting stranger with every second. Not only Usagi, but Naru as well? And Usagi's cat was capable of human speech? In a way at least it made certain sense, as Usagi's behaviour had started to change after she'd adopted Luna. Usagi now really owed her an explanation.

The Youma was pisssed. "Why couldn't you stay dead after master Jadeite dealt with you? You pathetic girl never learn!" Finally breaking the vines, she slashed her claws, but Ceres evaded and swung her sickle... "Ahhhhhhhhgggghhh!" ...and the Youma screamed when it cleanly sliced off her hand, black blood shooting out of the wound.

Ceres looked in astonishment at what she'd done with a simple swung of her sickle. It was hard to believe that she, simple Naru, had done this to such an monster without much efford. However, she had no time to think about it, as the Youma looked now even more pissed.

"You little bitch, I'll..."

"You won't do anything, fiend!" A thrown rose embedded itself in her other hand, before blowing up and taking the wole arm with it, causing the Youma to howl. "Yes, Crescent Beam!" A yellow beam of energy shot right through Derela's head, ending her existence. She stood there for a second in shock, before exploding into a cloud of dust.

Looking up to the windows, Ceres first saw a masked man wearing a tuxedo and top hat. She didn't know who that was. The other person however she'd heard lot of: the legendary Sailor V. She'd have never dreamed of actually meeting her. However, her awe was interrupted when suddenly she heard coughing from the side and saw that Moon had been freed with the monster's destruction and was spitting out green goo in disgust, looking ready to hurl.

"Yeargl... I'll need a whole bottle of mouthwash to..." she stopped when seeing Ceres approach her, feeling like a bad person all of a sudden. "Uhm... eh..." she couldn't find any words, it was too awkwand.

There was silence for a moment, before the redhead hugged Moon tightly, and the message was clear. She was not angry and they were still friends. However, she would want answers. Moon felt an enormous relief that Naru was forgiving her and that she no longer would have to keep things from her. The moment was broken when they heard someone ah-eming. Seperating, they saw Sailor V and Tuxedo Mask looking amused to them.

"Is there anything we should know?" Sailor V asked, her tone making it clear what she was implying.

**"NO!" **both of them yelled, before Moon decided to quickly set things right. "We are only friends! Nothing more! And we both only like guys!"

"I sure hope so," Luna dryly commented, before looking to the new arrivals. "Sailor V I did expect, but not you. Normally you just leave after everything is done."

"Let's say I decided to become more active and thus have to stop doing vanishing acts. I have some things to talk about, but here hardly seems to be the right place for it." He then looked around. "And judging by all the confusion in the room, I must have missed something else happening..."

"You could say that..." Moon shook her head, wondering how the hell she should explain all this to Pluto. "We should call the ambulance before taking our leave. There is someone, who can help us to get things rolling. Far better for all the explanations."

"Don't even think about leaving without me!"

Turning their heads to from where the voice came from, they saw a drained-looking but still determined Akane slowly making her way to them. She obviously was quite weak on her feet, but this didn't seem to stop her, while looking hard at Moon and Ceres, especially at Moon.

"You... have a lot of explaining to do," she told the blonde accusingly. She felt like shit, but didn't care as for now she was more annoyed at Usagi keeping such a secret from her.

"Uhm, I have no idea what you are talking about..." Moon lamely tried to deflect whatever it was.

Akane took offense at that. "Don't give me this bullshit! I really expected you to be more honest Ummmmpph.." Moon's gloved hand over her mouth stopped her from saying it.

"Look..." she whispered into Akane's ear, "Sailor V doesn't know who I am, and I was told not to tell her yet! Please, don't do this to me and I promise to be good." She then removed her hand and waited for an answer.

"Alright, I won't say it. But don't even think I'll just forget this happened. Now I want the whole story," Akane made clear. She hated it when people kept secrets from her. What had happened to her today -whatever it actually had been- only proved that it could have bad results.

Sailor Moon felt a huge headache developing. How was she supposed to explain this to Pluto?

* * *

_...a little later, between space and time..._

Sailor Pluto felt her ultra-enormous headache slowly fading away. The source of this headache had been multi-fold and started right after Sailor Moon had called her over the communicator.

First of course was the fact that Sailor Moon had somehow managed that her house-guest had gotten behind her secret. Akane Tendo had made it pretty clear that she wouldn't accept just a vague explanation. No, she wanted to be in on the whole thing now, or she'd raise quite a stink. Pluto had briefly toyed with the idea of tinkering with the girl's mind, but had quickly berated herself for the thought alone, and it would be impossible anyway. Pluto didn't like it, but it seemed that she'd have to live with the girl knowing their secrets.

Second on her headache-list was the fact that today had been quite chaotic. She hadn't forseen Ami's awakening at all, most likely because of Ranma's chaotic influence. By the time she'd known, it was all done and she'd decided to leave them alone for the time being, until summoning her, which would be in mere minutes now.

The biggest contribution to her headache was Naru Osaka. Sailor Ceres had come out of the blue, as she hadn't existed in the original timeline where Naru had been an ordinary girl. Only then had the memories rushed into her head, as always when being made aware of something that had changed and her self of this timeline knew of, but she didn't, until this moment. Needless to say, her brain did not appreciate the stress this put onto it.

"Alright..." she finally told the gathered group, who'd had the decency to stay silent after she'd transported them into this realm where she'd give all the needed information. "You are giving me quite a headache... Sailor Moon, how could you have been so careless to transform where someone could see it?"

"Uhmm... sorry?" Sailor Moon sheepishly said, hoping that it would be enough. Pluto rolled her eyes at this meager excuse.

"Does it still make sense that I shouldn't know their identity? After all, it would now be laughably easy for my curiosity to get the better, and..." Sailor V started, but stopped when Pluto held up a hand.

"You are right that this doesn't make sense anymore. However, you yourself still have to cover for the moment," she advised her, then looked to Artemis. "Please make sure she doesn't flub it accidently after learning the identity of the others."

"No problem." Artemis could already feel Minako getting annoyed at being reminded of her tendency of being unable to control her mouth until it was too late.

"This'll take some time and there is one one person who needs to attend..." That said, she vanished.

"Uhm, I hope I didn't get you intto trouble," Akane told Sailor Moon. While she wanted answers, she was a little intimidated by this green-haired woman, who radiated power.

"Don't worry. Pluto is a really forgiving woman. At least I hope so..."

o

On the rooftop, Ami had calmed down by now with the first panic over. Ranma had used the opportunity to reassure her that she was still Ami and nothing could change that, before finally telling her of meeting someone dressed like that before. The more Ranma told her, the more Ami managed to get herself back under control, by now feeling a little embarrassed how she'd fallen apart at this change of outfit, since after all she'd seen Ranma's father turning into a panda repeatedly, a change far more drastical than hers.

"Gods...Ranma... I...I'm sorry that I acted like that..." she tried to excuse herself while desperately tugging on the short skirt, hoping beyond reason that it somehow would become longer, her modesty rebelling.

"No, don't say it!" he stopped her. "I could see how scared you were, no need for excuses."

"But... I freaked out over this..." she pointed at the seifuku she was wearing "...while knowing that people could be turned into animals."

She was embarrassed how easy her rational mind had gone bye-bye, especially after discretly checking herself and confirming that yes, everything was still where it should be, she just was wearing this strange outfit and was able to do feats that were scientifically impossible, although that didn't mean much anymore after witnessing Ranma's logic-breaking gender-changes.

Shaking his head, Ranma held her by the shoulders. "Look, you really don't need to be sorry. I remember how I freaked out after falling into the spring. I really understand why you freaked out over this, your mind just says bye and you can't help but freak out."

Some months ago, he'd have laughed if it was suggested he'd talk like that. His father had made sure that he would be incapable of interacting with others in a normal manner. It was interesting how having settled down and interacting with people his own age had influenced him. Genma would say, made him soft. However, he didn't care. He felt that Ami was far too nice to not treat her as best as he could, drawing from his limited pool of experiences.

Caring so much for her also made him realise something else: for the first time in months, he was actually truely happy. He wouldn't have dreamed that settling down and living a mundane life would actually be so much better than life on the road.

_I hate to admit it, but in this strange outfit, she looks.. wow,_ he thought when taking in how it highlighted her... assets. _Granted, the outfit still looks completely ridiculous, but she seems to look good in anything._

Seeing that Ranma didn't want any apologies, she gently touched the gashes on his faces which he'd gotten when being thrown through the closed window. By now they'd stopped bleeding and the blood had dried. "Oh, Ranma... This could leave scars."

Ranma shook it off. "I don't care, already got an impressive collection of these in less visible places. What do some more matter? Important is that I stopped this thing from hurting you."

Ami couldn't help but blush a little. Ranma obviously cared for her well-being.

"Excuse me."

On instinct Ranma jumped to face the woman who'd said this, going in battle stance to dish out a beating in case of hostilities. Looking at the source of the voice, Ranma and Ami got a surprise. It was a woman with long, green hair which they guessed to be around 30 (they couldn't know they were WAY off), wearing something that looked identical to what Ami was wearing, only the the color scheme of the skirt, boots, bow and sailor-flap was black instead of blue. She also held on a long staff that curiously was shaped a lot like a key.

She held up her left hand. "Peace, I am not here to do you any harm. I'm here to help."

Ranma had no trouble to see that although her body language was truely peaceful, she was not to be taken lightly. While Sailor Moon screamed "Rookie" with every bit of her being, this woman before them was no push-over. Oh no, he could feel that she had to be taken very serious and could see with a trained eye, that she had to have years of experience under her belt.

Nonetheless, he stayed careful. "Maybe. But first tell us who you are and what you want."

Sailor Pluto wasn't offended. It was natural for Ranma to be mistrustful after what had happened today. "Very well. When looking like this, you may call me Sailor Pluto, although Pluto is enough. I am one of the ten Sailor Senshi, a group of magical warriors, whose job it is to protect the world form those who want to conquer or outright destroy it. As young Ami here has awakened her powers, I have come to reveal everything to her and help her with the changes in her life."

"I'm... a defender of the world?" Ami asked sceptically. She had imagined people doing that would not look like some sort of hooker for people with a schoolgirl fetisch.

"Yeah... It's nothing personal, but who had this brilliant idea to have the defenders of the world walk around in something this embarrassing?" Ranma asked, then added when looking to Mercury "No offense, Ami."

"None taken, I'm not happy with it, either," she replied.

Pluto rolled her eyes. "Look, I know the uniform looks completely ridiculous and is downright embarrassing, but that can't be changed anymore. Blame a pervert, hardcore lesbian for these things." Now that this was out of the way, she continued "I want to help you, you just have to trust me and come with me."

"It's not that I don't want to learn what happened to me... But I fear Ranma won't let me leave with some stranger just like that," she told Pluto, when seeing how Ranma protecticely moved to her side. "So either he comes with me, or I have to decline."

_I KNEW that this would happen,_ Pluto silently cursed. As if this Akane girl hadn't been enough. Well, it could have been worse.

"Alright... Then he can come with us. Since I already have an uninvited guest, one more won't make a difference... And better take hold of your stuff."

They wondered why she said that, but did as told. To their surprise, Pluto just raised her staff and they all vanished in a bright flash.

o

"C-c-cccc..."

Everyone was a little surprised when Pluto had returned with two people, one more Senshi and a boy that was well known to all but one. However, said boy had went deathly pale only seconds after their arrival and looked close to a complete panic attack for no apparent reason. That was, until Mercury remembered something that Nodoka Saotome had mentioned to her.

"Oh no! Quick, hide the cats!"

Pluto arched an eyebrow before a wave with her staff hid the two mooncats behind the fog, so that Ranma couldn't see them. "What is wrong with him?" she then asked, wondering what could have caused such a panic reaction.

"It's not my place to reveal it... Ranma had a very bad encounter with cats when he'd been six years old... The mere sight now almost gives him a heart attack," Ami tried to explain while trying to get Ranma to calm down. He however was still completely pale and seemed to have trouble to get over his panic.

Akane couldn't believe that the sight of a cat had turned Ranma, who normally wasn't fazed by much, into a mass of fear. She could only imagine what kind of thing his father must have done to cause such a panic attack at the mere sight of a cat.

Mamoru had seen stuff like that in university as part of the studies. The boy was showing clear signs of shock, so the trauma had to be especially deep. In a way he could relate, since something traumatic had also happened to him at the same age. Despite his memory loss after the car accident that had killed his parents, he'd developed a horrible fear of cars, something very bad in these times. He'd needed years to get over it and still couldn't bring himself to drive one.

Something compelled him to approach the young man and put his hand onto his shoulder...and... something happened and everyone looked in awe when a golden aura surrounded the both of them.

Ranma's mind was still in chaos, having trouble to calm down after it had seen the danger leave. The monster deep hidden inside him hadn't been roused in a long, long time and its attempts to break free had been more powerful than ever. Then however suddenly he felt a calming influence take hold of him. All of a sudden it didn't seem so frightening anymore and the monster howled in disappointment, before retreating back into its dark corner, sulking.

Mamoru saw in surprise how this simple gestue not only calmed down the young man, but also how in sconds the gashes in his face healed. Taking his hand off the shoulder, he looked at it in wonder. "Did I do that?"

Sailor Pluto gave him a warm smile. "You have just discovered your healing powers... After all, where do you think you aspiration to become a doctor comes from? And Endymion's powers also included the ability to help people in distress."

"Wow..." he couldn't believe it; to have such a useful and beneficial power.

"Do we have to stay in this fog the entire time? I have no problems with seeing, but it is annoying," Artemis complained, and then there was a sound as if a paw was smacked over his head.

"Idiot, we don't want a repeat of what just had happened," Luna hissed, finding it hard to believe that she was attracted to him, considering his occassional lack of common sense.

"Well, you know what they say about couples. Their fighting reflects how much they like each other," Sailor V quipped, causing both mooncats to grumble in annoyance over their private life being the topic of gossip.

"Man... I thought you were just some guy who has the weirdest choice of clothes and whose only powers are corny speeches. Guess there's more to you after all," Ranma admitted and Mamoru could guess that he didn't admit being in the wrong easily.

"Thanks. I try to stop using these speeches since I realized myself how embarrassing they are... As for this... I have a really cool armour, but can't access it yet, so I have to work for now with what my mind conjured. Don't ask me how I thought up this outfit," he told Ranma.

"Now that this is done, Please let me handle introducions," Pluto called, and everyone turned their attention to her.

"All of you already know that when I look like this, I'm called Sailor Pluto. I will explain everything, but first... The girl with the two ponytails is Sailor Moon, the girl with the mask is Sailor V, although she actually is Sailor Venus. The redhead is the newly awakened Sailor Ceres, while the man in the tuxedo is the re-incarnated Prince Endymion. The girl in the dress is Akane Tendo. The boy with the pigtail is Ranma Saotome, while the Senshi with him is the recently awakened Sailor Mercury. The two... you don't see are called Luna and Artemis."

"And now allow me to reveal what actually is going on..." She was glad she'd created a movie that would explain everything to them, while she'd just give some flavor to it on occassion. After all, she didn't want to repeat the explanation each time, that would be repetetive for her. Their surroundings showed the whole story, while she commented from time to time.

_"Our ancestors once had colonised all the planets, and harnessed their powers for the good of all poeple. They built beautiful cities and created an empire."_

_"Here is a testament to the ways of old; to the glory that was the Silver Millenium... The glory that was... Yet even though our magical powers endure, the strength that once tamed them does no longer."_

_"Fortune had abandoned the Silver Millenium."_

_"Decency and humility had evaporated in it, like drops of water in the desert, turning it arrogant and weak. When the dark forces moved against it, nothing could stop them."_

_"And the Silver Millenium crumbled to dust."_

"Wow... that was heavy..." Ranma commented when it was over. He wouldn't have suspected something like this.

"That's all you can say?" Akane asked him in disbelief, she herself had been gripped by the story of rise, decay and treachery. "Be glad that I'm too weak on my legs, or I'd smack your head for being such an insensitive jerk!"

"Don't you think you are too hard on him? You can't call him insensitive just because he shows his emotions different," Mercury defended Ranma. She herself had seen all this more from a historian's viewpoint; after all it already been been so long ago.

Akane didn't have an answer to that.

"That's what you are fighting against? And I thought you just didn't want me around any longer," Ceres told Moon. "I feel somewhat guilty now that I'd thought so."

"Don't... I'm just happy. However..."Moon looked to Pluto. "You never mentioned her. It would have been nice to tell us about her!"

Pluto knew that the question would come. After all, she herself had been surprised. "I'm honest when I say that it had been a surprise for myself. You see, the story of Sailor Ceres is a sad one, and I didn't even know she'd been reborn until you'd brought her to me."

Seeing that she had everyone's attention, she continued. "You see, since Ceres is just an oversized asteroid, it never had the power of the planets, or even most of the moons, its inhabitants had been rather poor. It had only been their stubborness that made the mages harness the power of Ceres in the first place. Needless to say, her powers are of course inferior to that of the other Senshi."

"Basically besides the usual endurance and small benefits that come with the transformation, you only have two powers. The first is the power over plants, commanding them. The second is your sickle, a powerful weapon. That's it and Sailor Ceres had been cruelly mocked by the other Senshi all the time, who saw her just as an annoyance. Only Sailor Moon and the royal family always held to her.

"Pluto then sighed. However, when the Dark Kingdom attacked, Ceres was the first to fall. Abandoned by the others, Jadeite killed her by chopping off her head with his sword." Seeing Ceres wince, she knew that these words had stung. "Due to the time span between her death and the queen sending everyone to a new life, it had seemed that she hadn't made it. Thankfully I was proven wrong."

"I don't care how much power you have, you still are my friend," Moon told Ceres with an assuring smile.

"You seem to take this awfully well," Ranma asked Mercury, finding this strange considering her earlier breakdown.

"What other choice do I have? Going crazy over this won't help anyone," she replied.

Pluto again asked for attention. "Now... I know I can't force you into accepting. Anyone wants out?" No one said anything. "Now... I know we have some... guests..." She turned her attention to Akane and Ranma. "You are lucky I'm such a good-hearted person. Someone else might have erased your memories." Seeing both of them gulp hard at the implication, she continued "What's done is done and maybe it is better this way. Promise me you won't reveal this to an outsider, or else..."

The open-ended threat worked wonder and they both quickly promised that on their honor they wouldn't tell anyone. "Good, now as a token of trust you'll learn each other's true identity. I myself can't reveal mine yet, and I hope you understand that for tactical reasons, Sailor Venus for now stays incognito. To drop the transformation, just touch the jewel in the front bow and wish the transformation away..."

"Stop! Wait!"

"Ranma, is something wrong?" Mercury asked, when seeing him turn an interesting shade of red.

"Well...you see, I..." Ranma finally decided that an end in horror was best. "Do you even know you're naked when transforming?"

"Naked?" She needed a moment for the implicationss to sink in. "You mean...? You saw me...?" How embarrassing! Sailor Mercury blushed from head to toe at the idea that Ranma had seen her in her whole glory.

"I didn't mean to! It just happened so fast!" Ranma tried to explain, seeing Akane giving him a look that promised trouble if there wasn't a good explanation. "I mean... not that you look bad, I really liked what I saw..."

"Ranma, please stop," a blushing Mercury told him. "Look, I know you aren't at fault. Please be a gentleman and look the other way in the future, ok?" She then turned to Pluto, seeing that the other girls had similar looks of embarrassment. Obviously they'd never thought about it as well. "Well?"

Pluto rolled her eyes. Of all the topics... "That's because of the mechanism of the transformation. We have to be naked for the uniform to be created by the magic. So right at the start, your clothes and personal belongings are safely stored in your personal subspace pocket and returned to you, once you dissolve the transformation. Sorry, I know that's embarrassing, but it's how the magic works. For the sake of your modesty better chose wisely where to transform and where to return to normal."

"Thank all goodness that I don't have to go through that. My transformation is thankfully nudity-free," Tuxedo Mask commented, glad that he'd checked this in a mirror earlier.

"Well, men, give the ladies some privacy..." Akane told them, making clear that this wasn't a request but an order.

Looking away, they heard the distinct sound of something happening, and then...

"Ami? I can't believe it! I didn't recognise you at all!" Naru gasped in surprise when seeing the girl she often was around at. "I suddenly feel stupid, Ranma's presence should have clued me in."

Ami also was surprrised that Usagi of all people was also a fighter for justice. "To be honest I'm more surprised that we already knew each other before this happened. Of course that makes things considerably easier."

Tuxedo Mask however gave Usagi an interesting look. "I can't believe it..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Usagi asked and then saw the man drop his transformation. "You can't be serious! Why you of all people?"

"I'm surprised, as well. I should have recognoised this hairstyle at once." Seeing confusion from the people around them, he decided to give them an explanation. "Well, the name's Mamoru Chiba, student od midicine at the university. There isn't much of interest in my life, I'm downright boring. But maybe since we are on the same side, we can get each other better known in the future. As for how we know each other..."

"Don't say it! Each time we met on the streets, you made fun of me, my grades, believing in fortune, love letters and my wish to be famous! What have I done to deserve this mocking?" Usagi whined.

Pluto rolled her eyes when sseeing the fruitless attempts of Mamoru to explain his motivation behind it. He could hardly know that it was the past relationship of Endymion and Serenity that had made him meet her, and that his mocking was a way to ensure that Endymion wouldn't try to have his way with her, by pushing her away.

She wondered how things now would turn out.

* * *

_...near the Saotome home..._

"After all what happened today, are we still good?" Ranma asked, while they walked to the Saotome home.

Ami sighed and finally put the small handhald computer into her subspace pocket -which was a fascinating thing. She'd gotten the device from Pluto with the assurance, that it was part of her equipment, together with a visor that came with her uniform. She was fascinated with the sheer computing power of the so-called Mercury Computer.

She wondered why Ranma was so insecure about the matter, but maybe it was because she was his first real friend and he didn't want to lose her. "I told you already once in the last five minutes that it won't change anything. Just because I suddenly became a magical girl doesn't mean I suddenly drop you like a hot potato. And after all, we're both now what you can't call normal."

"Yeah, but I..."

Ami rolled her eyes. "Ranma, just because you saw me naked doesn't mean I'll go crazy at you... Ranma, why do you ask me this now? You seemed alright earlier."

"That's because there were others around..."

Truth to be told, he was very insecure. First of course because Ami was the first real friend he'd made here and he was surprised how frightening the idea was, that he could lose her. Additionally, he had become more attached to her than that, especially after today. He had difficulties to describe how exactly, but the mere idea that she could reject him was almost as scary as cats. In the relatively short time he was living in Minato, he had found himself so attached to this kind of life, he simply couldn't imagine going back on the road. That part of his life was over and he didn't want it back.

Ami stopped. "Ranma, look me into the eyes... I am not angry at you. While I'm a little embarrassed that you saw me like that, it was honestly not you fault. So please stop worrying."

Actually, that Ranma had seen her naked even thrilled her a little, especially after he'd admitted that he did like what he'd seen. No one aside from Ranma -family didn't count- had ever told her that she was good-looking. And to be told today that she actually was this attractive to a boy was a wholly new experience that her mind had difficulties to process. It conjured... interesting pictures in her mind.

"It's... I really like you. And the idea you could leave me..." Ranma tried to explain, struggling to find the right words.

Finally the penny dropped. "Ranma, do you mean that you like me more than just a friend?"

"Look, I have little idea about all these things. Right now I don't even know what it means to like someone more than that. I honestly can't tell if I like you that way..." he shamefully admitted, embarrassed that he was unable to be sure about something this natural.

That didn't surprise her, considering his upbringing. "To be honest, neither do I... Ranma, just forget the mere idea that I could reject you and keep an open mind. Maybe we can find out what we are to each other, but at least we stay friends, OK?"

Ranma just gave her a smile, signaling that he found this to be the best idea.

Minutes later they approached the house, only to get stopped by Genma at the garden gate. He looked downright scared. "Boy, you don't want to go in there!"

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Pop, what are you talking about? What could be so bad?"

Genma's horror grew on his face. "Boy, you don't understand, your mother has invited two other woman and they are in there, talking."

"So what? They are having tea together, what's so bad about this?" he asked, still not getting what his father was so scared about.

"You don't get it. They are talking about their children, meaning you two as well! I fled when they started to get out the baby pictures!" Genma told them in horror.

Both of them now looked horrified as well, the mere idea that their mothers could talk about their teenage childeren while they'd been babies and little kids made the alarm bells ring in their heads. Ranma and Ami both dearly loved their mothers, but there were some instances where they wanted to keep their distance. And this was one of them.

"Ranma... let's go to my place. My mother obviously won't be there so we can do the work there," Ami offered, trying not to imagine what past embarrassments her mother was revealing in there.

Genma watched them leave, before leaving himself to go for the next public dojo. He really needed to calm down, and nothing was better for it than lots of physical activity. There were few things that could really scare him, but a bunch of gossiping woman was something, that even the dreaded master had been unable to endure for more than a minute.

_The boy is learning to avoid unneeded dangers, _he mused while being on his way.

Inside, said woman were indeed looking at baby pictures of their children.

"And this is Ami when she first first tried to read a book, even before she could read," Saeko said, showing the others a picture of a barely three year old Ami wearing the oversized glasses of her mother and holding a children's book upside-down.

"Oh, that's cute. Here's one of Usagi during her potty training," Ikuko added, showing them a picture of little Usagi, wearing nothing at all, sitting on the kiddie throne.

"This is a good one. It shows Ranma when he first tried to show what a great martial artist he is," Nodoka said and showed around a picture of Ranma age four, who was challenging a frog. "The frog jumped into his face and ran screaming to me."

"This always reminds me how fast time has passed. That were our children when they were still little and innocent, and now they've changed so much. It sometimes makes me feel old," Ikuko said, while taking a sip from her tea.

"Yes... It's interesting how fast children can grow up. It's as if from one moment to the next, years have passed... Oh, sorry Nodoka. I meant no offense," Saeko apologised when seeing her friend look sad for a moment.

Nodoka held up a hand. "No, don't apologise. I've accepted by now that not seeing him grow up is the punishment for me acting like an obsessed maniac. I'm happy enough that he finally has returned to me and won't leave anytime soon."

"To be honest, I still can't imagine seeing you act like that. I've always known you as you are now... The mere idea that you were willing to drive someone to suicide for something as vague as manliness seems absurd to me," Ikuko wondered, unable to imagine this understanding woman to have been so different in the past.

Nodoka stayed silent, as it was embarrassing to talk about her past behaviour, but Saeko jumped in. "Trust me, it had been bad. I can see how much this is uncomfortable for her, so I better leave it at that."

Ikuko saw that this was a topic to let rest. "Good, no more talk about the past... Let's talk about our children of now. Usagi recently has become somewhat withdrawn. I tried to ask her if anything is wrong, but she only said that it was nothing... I wonder if it is a boy."

Seako shook her head. "With her? Hardly. What I've seen of the girl, she'd rather boast about finally getting one."

"That reminds me... Ranma and Ami seemed to be together an awful lot," Nodoka finally said, breaking her silence. "I wonder if there is something more than just friendship between them."

"I'm no expert in this, but I can see how much more happy she now is, and that already makes me happy as well. He clearly is good for her and if I dare to say so, he also benefits a lot from someone his own age who is as patient as my daughter," Saeko mused, while getting more tea.

"If they are happy, then that's enough. If there develops more it is up to them, " Ikuko said.

"But that doesn't count for your own daughter?" Saeko asked, remembering how critical Ikuko was of her daughter trying to find a boyfriend.

"That's because she is irresponsible. I fear that she could end up as a teenage mother by someone who won't be as honorable as Ranma is to your daughter," Ikuko finally voiced her worries. "That has become one of my nightmares."

While these two discussed their daughters, Nodoka had a far-away look in her eyes. She imagined what could be if her son actually would find Ami attractive. Her imagination jumped several years into the future and saw them with a couple of children. Nodoka really wanted to have grandchildren, a dream that had recently being resurrected when seeing Ranma becoming rather close to Ami. After all, what mother wouldn't love grandchildren?

Well, perhaps her own, who up to this day had never wanted to see Ranma, who actually hadn't spoken to her since she'd married Genma. Most of her family wasn't talking to her any longer, and Genma's family was mostly dead or scattered all over the country. The only one she still had contact with was her grandfather, who'd openly stated that her parents were foolish to disown her. The old man had been supportive to her in the time when she'd went through the changes in her life and didn't hold back his opinion that she now was a better person.

Maybe she should invite him to meet Ranma during summer break.

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"Showdown at Hikawa Shrine"**_

**Notes:**

**Ok, first off is of course that some people will complain that Sailor Ceres is unlikely as the asteroid senshi are a seperate group in canon. Guess what, I hate them and therefore made it that they never existed, thus a new story for Ceres.**

**Then of course the fact that this chapter is rather Sailor Moon-heavy. Again that's because it's a turning point in the story. The next chapters will more center around Ranma-story plots.**

**Oh, and of course if you didn't realize how the battle ended "RANMA WINS!" (guess what I'm playing at...)**


	9. Showdown at Hikawa Shrine

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

Only one more Inner Senshi to go and the addition of one of the Ranma-cast.

**This one went much faster than the previous chapter, thankfully, and therefore I hope to keep up this tempo, especially as the next chapter doesn't have as much exposition as this one. I also was surprised that no one got the Mortal Kombat reference in the previous chapter.**

**Note that specific notes are at the end of the chapter, to avoid spoilers.**

** (Edit: Also eliminated numerous typos, but please no more comments about sentence structure. Translating everything simply does have side effects.)**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Showdown at Hikawa Shrine**

"Jadeite, while your energy harvest from your latest scheme is significant, that you again lost the Youma involved does start to become irritating. Didn't you promise that striking at two places at the same time wouldn't cause a total loss?" Queen Beryl questioned Jadeite while transferring the energy into her crystal ball.

"I know, my queen. I only calculated with interference from Sailor Moon, however. I did not anticipate that the Senshi disguising herself as Sailor V would interfere as well. This makes things much more complicated," Jadeite explained, hoping this apology would do it.

In reality he was pissed that his plan had probably been foiled just by the dumb coincidence of this fake-princess being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It started to become embarrassing that he was losing Youma to these brats. He could feel his queen's annoyance by now and felt that he should make his subordinates to work faster on finishing the big plan. He'd need it to pacify Queen Beryl's growing doubts.

"Excuses, excuses and even more excuses."

Jadeite growled when seeing Nephrite approaching. That was the last he needed right now. "What do you want here, Nephrite? You weren't asked to appear."

"Well, I didn't want to miss your latest failure," he said arrogantly, having regained his cool after the last time they'd met. He then turned to Beryl. "Queen Beryl, I again protest against Jadeite's wasteful ways of gathering energy. His methods are very inefficient."

Beryl seemed to think about it for a moment. "You talk as if you have an alternative to offer, Nephrite."

"Indeed, I have. And it is most economical to our magical resources."

"I'll keep this in mind. For now, I'll give Jadeite one last chance to actively gather energy. Should he lose another Youma, I'll command him to concentrate all his efforts on his big project and you get your chance." She looked to Jadeite. "Jadeite, I expect you to not return with empty hands."

"No, Queen Beryl! I'll do my very best!" Jadeite hastily said, trying to conceal his disappointment.

_Your best won't be good enough... _Nephrite thought, while watching his rival leave. Everything was going the way he'd intended it to. It now was only a matter of time, before he'd get his chance to prove himself to his queen.

* * *

_...at the evening..._

"Don't you think that you take this a little too personal?" Usagi carefully asked Akane.

Both of them were already in their sleeping garments and Akane had joined Usagi in her room to talk. So far, Usagi had become concerned with what the other girl had told her. Akane had recovered from her energy loss, but what she thought of what had happened today wasn't good. Essentially, Akane felt insignificant compared to everyone else. All her friends turned out to be awesome in some way or another, and she felt rather useless.

"Usagi, you and your friends can throw around magic. Even Naru is now stronger than me. And Ranma is so far ahead of me, that it isn't funny. I feel as if I'm the load," Akane openly admitted. She wouldn't add that she also felt incredibly angry at having been victimised so easily today.

"Don't say that! You are not useless." Usagi didn't like people being depressed, and right now Akane was showing all signs of feeling like that.

"Yes, considering how little Usagi still has her own powers under control, you're right now much better than her," Luna added, showing how she wasn't impressed with the lack of progress on Usagi's side.

"LUNA!" Usagi gasped in protest.

"It's true. In every battle up to now, you needed someone to bail you out. You should really consider changing your tactics," the mooncat scolded her charge further. It wasn't that she disliked Usagi, she rather wanted her to not get hurt.

Usagi wanted to refute that, but then heard Akane chuckle a little sadly. "I still have to get used to the fact, that you can talk... Luna, thanks to your effort, but I better tell you why that bothers me. You see, back in Nerima I pretty much was at the top of the heap power-wise. I liked that a lot. And now I'm pretty much at the bottom and that doesn't really help my self-confidence."

"I can't really imagine someone defining herself over how well she can beat up people," Usagi openly admitted, having trouble to see how this would work.

Akane shook her head, it after all was difficult to understand for outsiders. "Remember, I grew up thinking I would inherit my father's dojo. I put a lot of strength into it, hoping he'd find me worthy of it. I invested lots of strength into it and it gave my quite a bit of pride... And then first my father tells me he never wanted me to inherit it in the first place, then I use my strength the wrong way and now I discover that despite all the effort I put into it, I'm not that powerful at all. You can imagine how I feel now."

"Too many disappointments too fast?" Usagi asked, after listening to this rant.

"That's basically it..." Akane flopped down onto a pillow. "How useful can I be for you guys? I'm not as good as Ranma, as loathe as I am to admit, nor do I have any magic. Look how easily I got sucked dry today. I'm useless."

Usagi at once wanted to refute that, only to come up with no way to do so. It was true that Akane would never last in a Youma battle. However, that the girl tied her self-worth to this was over the top. "I don't care if you can't fight them. You're still a friend, and that alone is support enough for me."

"Usagi... I ..."

"You know, there's some truth behind that. Even though you can't fight our enemies doesn't mean you are useless. I'm not exactly sure what your role in this conflict will be, but you'll sure find it in time," Luna encouraged the girl.

Akane really didn't know if they were right, but for the sake of peace didn't contest it. Right then her stomach growled... again. "Oh."

"Again? Where do you keep all the food you are shoveling into yourself? Getting your energy drained made you a worse glutton than Usagi," Luna noted in astonishment, ignoring the dirty look Usagi gave her.

Akane knew that this was her heightened metabolism that even her patchy training had created. She'd found a girl's dream: eat as much as you want and don't get fat. This was possible since her body stored almost all of the excess energy directly, instead of turning it into body fat. Of course after getting drained her body was working hard on replacing all the lost energy, which meant she constantly had to eat and her digestive system was working on overdrive to shove all of it through her system much quicker than normal.

Much quicker was the word, as her belly constantly made the most interesting sounds while working hard and she'd had to use the bathroom almost half a dozen times already. She really hoped that this wouldn't go on for much longer while excusing herself to raid the fridge.

_I really hope this is over by tomorrow, _she hoped, knowing that there wouldn't be any sleep this night.

* * *

_...two days later (mid-June)..._

"Again! And again!"

Akane didn't need to be told that, while unloading all of her freshly regained power against Ranma, who blocked off her strikes without too much of an effort. Both knew that today wasn't about finesse, it was about Akane letting off steam after the humiliation of being a victim of the Dark Kingdom. She hadn't said so openly, but it had made her angry that she'd been victimised. So right at them moment Ranma as a girl was blocking every strike from a screaming Akane. Of course, the screaming also helped to let out all of it.

Ami watched from the sidelines, wondering if she could ever become this good. Not as good as Ranma, that would involve uncounted sadism, but as good as Akane. After all, despite the power she lacked, even partially-trained Akane had much more skill than any of the Senshi. She also was still playing around with the new computer she got from Pluto, finding this to be an interesting gadget. It'd probably be very useful in the future.

Finally Akane had exhausted her cumulated anger. Soaked with sweat that almost glued her yellow gi to her body, she sat down on the small bench beside the training square in the Saotome garden, greedily drinking from her water bottle before she let out a small, un-ladylike belch. "Thanks... I needed that."

"No problem, you really needed to let that out." Ranma understood that Akane hated to be victimised, after all she herself also hated the idea of being helpless. She'd even turned into a girl so that Akane's strikes would have more effect, making the girl feel better.

"Ranma, a question. What exactly do you think the level of the Senshi is? Please be honest, I can endure it," Ami asked her out of the blue. There was no need for secrecy, as Genma was at work and Nodoka was out at the market.

"You want me to be honest? I don't know enough to make a final judgement, but from observing you girls in everyday life, you wouldn't even get the yellow belt. Sorry, but you know absolutely nothing about self-defense and have to rely on your magic to bail you out," Ranma honestly told her.

Ami winced a little at the brutally honest analysis. "And I guess there is no short-term fix?"

Ranma shook her head. "Nope. Look, first of all, I'm no teacher yet and therefore can't help you out. I'll need years before I've learned how to teach others the art... And should you find someone else, you can't expect wonders. While you can learn some of the basics of fighting pretty fast, getting to let's say Akane's level -that's roughly the brown belt- would take you three to four years of very hard work."

Ami sighed. "That means we should really hope that either Mars or Jupiter can fight, or we are in trouble. I still wonder why Pluto is so confident that we can still make it."

"Well, _she_ certainly knows how to fight. I only had to take one look at her and knew she's trained, experienced and far stronger than she lets on. She could give me a run for my money," Ranma admitted.

"Wow..." Ranma admitting that someone was this good she'd learned was seldom, meaning that Pluto must have impressed him quite a bit. Maybe the grown-up Senshi knew a way to make them less dependent on their magic?

Akane had listened to all of it and couldn't believe that actually the Senshi were boned with their lack of fighting experience. That Ranma actually said that she was years ahead of them in fighting experience was flattering. Still, she doubted that she'd last more than a few seconds in a real fight, since she lacked the insane experience and power that Ranma had.

Right then Ranma sniffed. "No offense, Akane, but you stink. Get cleaned up."

"Hardly a wonder, considering how much I've sweated," Akane returned sarcastically. She then went into the house to take a bath, before she'd change back into everyday clothes.

"She isn't bad. I actually feel sorry that my old man is the only one in the area who could teach her anything new." That said, she took off the top of her gi and streched. That her mother had insisted to buy a separate gi for her girl-form had irritated Ranma at first, but now she appreciated it, as it was a good fit.

Ami barely held back a blush and thanked all goodness that Ranma had bound her breasts so that they wouldn't bounce, which she'd discovered to be really annoying. The chest wrappings covered that part of feminine anatomy nicely, but didn't hide anything else of the bare upper body. Ranma had finally managed through hard work to get some buff as a girl and didn't any longer look like the innocence in person. Feminine softness and curves blended well with hard muscle and Ami couldn't help but to admire the slight sixpack she'd gained. While far less prominent than her male one, it blended well with the female body.

_Gods, what am I thinking? _Ami finally caught herself. _What would Ranma think of me? Ogling him while he's a girl!_

Ami by now had admitted to herself that she liked to look at male Ranma's muscles when he took off his shirt after training, but they were only friends, right? Also it was only natural, since he was a boy and she was a girl, and girls felt attracted to such things. Her admiring Ranma's female body went contrary to that, and after all she didn't feel anything like that for any other girl. But Ranma wasn't just a girl.

Could it be... that it was because it was Ranma, and therefore she did find him attractive even while being a girl? Maybe... maybe she did feel more for him than just friendship, remembering their little conversation three days ago. Ami felt her head spin, things with Ranma over time had become so complicated.

"Ami, is everything alright?" Ranma asked, having noticed her staring strangely at her.

That pulled her out of thoughts. "Wha... oh no, nothing is wrong," she hastily said, hoping that Ranma hadn't noticed.

Ranma took that as it was. Sometimes girls were simply plain weird and she'd long given up to understand them. Even turning into one didn't help to get any insight into the female psyche. In return however she also was glad that turning into a girl didn't alter her thoughts. She once did have a nightmare of turning into a frilly girl wearing pink. Boy, that had been scary.

"Oh, before I forget, didn't that guy offered us to tell us what exactly the deal with him is? I remember Pluto didn't tell us that story," Ranma then remembered.

Ami knew that with 'that guy' he meant Mamoru. "To be honest, I'm interested myself. We still don't know much either about him or Endymion," she admitted.

_Well, that guy at least means business after he promised to stop these stupid speeches_, Ranma thought.

However, her thoughts were interrupted when suddenly the wooden fence was broken down and she spotted someone standing on the debris she wished she'd have never seen again. Standing on the remains of the section of the fence was a girl roughly his age with bright purple hair, wearing Chinese clothes and holding a mean-looking mace in one hand. She also didn't look all too happy.

"Finally I've found you!" she declared in a heavily accented voice when spotting Ranma.

"Damn it, why can't you leave me alone?" Ranma complained in a mix of fear and annoyance.

The girl tried to look tough, but it was clear she failed miserably. It actually was a pitiful sight. "You know I can't. I need to to this." That said, she took a half-hearted swing with the mace at Ranma, who jumped away.

"You're crazy!"

"Stand still and I'll make this quick and painless!"

Ami didn't dare to move while watching Ranma evade each swing of the mace. It was clear that the girl didn't actually want to fight, but somehow felt obliged to do so anyway. Ranma also seemed reluctant to hit her for some reason, but finally seemed to have a plan and ran into the house.

Following her, Xian-Pu was frustrated.

She really didn't want to kill that girl, but she couldn't fake it. Not after one of the warriors had tracked her down in Shanghai and given her a beating she still felt for neglecting 'what was her own fault'. Her body was still littered with bruises and it was a warning that she had brought herself into this mess, and now she would also have to carry the final consequence. Even if that was the crushing guilt of bashing in an innocent girl's skull.

Running into the corridor where she'd seen the girl vanish into, she spotted a door that wasn't fully closed, ran in and slammed open the sliding door that lead to another room. "Finally got y... ayyyeeeee!" She stopped dead when seeing that she'd ran into a bathroom and spotted a naked girl -not her prey- already sitting in the tub, and a boy that was down to his boxers.

"Do you mind?" the boy snapped at her in annoyance.

Xian-Pu became beet-red. "Sorry, sorry, sorry! Wrong door!" she apologised before shutting the door and making a quick retreat.

Quickly making her way out of the house, she was disappointed; her prey had escaped. And then barging in on an almost naked boy! What would her great-grandmother think of her? Fighting hard to force down the blush, she vowed to try again tomorrow, while making her way back to the rented room that served as her shelter.

In the furo Akane grabbed her towel, despite her body still being submerged in the water. "You better have a good explanation for this..." she slowly said, watching Ranma hastily pulling up his now too tight gi pants, feeling the urge to deck him with something. She barely held her anger under control.

"You probably won't believe me when I tell you."

"That remains to be seen. Now get out before I force you to eat the sponge. " She left no doubt that this was no empty threat.

Giving up on trying to get on the too tight pants, Ranma felt it would be better to leave and did exactly that. He could after all change in his room. What he didn't expect was meeting Ami on the corridor. She blushed a little when seeing him only in his boxers and couldn't help but to look at his body, taking in every detail.

Ranma could feel her eyes on his body and also felt something else react to it. "Uhm...Ami. Excuse me!" Running up the stairs, he hoped she hadn't noticed the small tent in his boxers.

After all, the day already was complicated enough.

* * *

_...next day..._

"That's nuts, you know. What kind of sore loser reaction is that?"

They at first hadn't believed Ranma at all, after all it had sounded too stupid, but then they had to admit that their lives recently had been anything but normal as well. Still, the reason why there was a girl from China chasing girl-Ranma for the kill was still ridiculous and they wondered what kind of barbaric backwater it was where she came from.

As far as Ranma had been able to recount, it had happened in a village not too far from the cursed springs. He and his father, while both in their cursed forms, had accidently eaten the food that was supposed to be the first prize for the annual warrior tournament. The winner, said purple-haired girl whose name sounded a lot like a hair-care product, of course was pissed and her great-grandmother had told them the only way to avoid working it off would be to actually defeat the champion.

Of course his lazy father had favored that way and Ranma did have little trouble to actually defeat her. Cue in her surprise when the girl then kissed her on the cheek, much to the protest of the village, which had almost started a riot. Turned out that the girl had done a big boo-boo and had sworn to hunt down and kill Ranma, as some ancient law to losing to outsider woman demanded when giving this kiss. The old woman hadn't looked happy and had given them ten minutes headstart and since then they had this psycho after them.

Right now Ranma was sitting on a park bench, telling Usagi and Naru the story while Ami again and again shook her head in disbelief. "I asked that myself numerous times. You're right, it **is **insane," Ranma replied.

In a way he found it strange that he still hadn't made a male friend in his time in Minato, and that all his friends were girls. However, considering how most of the guys at school were obvious wimps that still were intimidated by what he could do (although most of the girls fell under that as well), that was little wonder.

"Can't you just stay a boy and avoid her making the connection?" Naru asked, wondering how such things were still possible in this world.

Ranma let off a humorless laugh. "With the way the curse loves to screw me over at the worst moments? Good luck. I'll probably get splashed right when she's looking at me."

"Can't you try to talk her out of it?" Usagi asked, still unable to believe that someone could be this fixated on killing someone.

"After she chased me through half of China? Fat chance," Ranma waved it off, not having any idea what he could do to get rid of her. "That shows how determined she is to kill me, although the reason is completely idiotic. And my old man is no big help. He has no clue how to deal with the situation at all and my Mom doesn't understand and suggested talking to her to ,and I quote, 'solve our differences'."

"A little difficult to talk to someone who wants to bash in your head," Naru sarcastically said.

"Naru?" Usagi wondered.

"Sorry, but this whole reincarnation thing is causing me headaches. Just last night I had a nightmare of this Jadeite chopping off my head," Naru excused herself.

"Strange, I don't have either headaches nor nightmares..." Usagi then looked to Ami. "Ami, you have any problems?"

"Well..." She really didn't want to awaken Ranma's protective streak right now, as he had more pressing problems. "I had several dreams, but they were thankfully non-violent."

At least Pluto had explained to them that there would be no harm in them discovering these memories. There was no risk of them suddenly being taken over by some alternate personality (with one exception she didn't tell them), this was their life now and these memories just were to them as if reading an old book, they weren't part of their lives. She'd even told them to not try to model themselves after their previous lives, as this would only lead to grief. They had their own lives to live.

"Oh damn... girls, there she is again," Ranma tensed, seeing the purple-haired girl walking through the park, looking for him ,or better, her. "I bet that any moment now, I'll get screwed over by the curse."

"Aren't you a little too pessimistic?" Ami asked him.

"Ami, you know how the last 10 years of my life went by?" he asked her.

She had no reply. Given what already had happened to him, the chance that it probably would start to rain right now was quite big.

Xian-Pu meanwhile wondered how the girl managed to evade her. After all, all the information showed that she was living in this neighborhood, and red hair was as easy to spot as purple one. Despite that, she hadn't yet found her since losing her yesterday. This actually annoyed her; it was as if this girl was mocking her tracking skills. After all, no one could just vanish into thin air, right?

_#Doesn't she know she makes this even harder for me? This already is difficult enough for me as it is!#_ she mentally whined.

As if nature itself decided to mock her, it right then started to rain. Great, now she not only had her target eluding her, but also was getting wet. As if the day could get any worse. However, that thought stopped right when she spotted not one, but two redheads. The first clearly wasn't her target, but the second was. Thanking fortune, she took hold of her mace and at once attacked her.

**-Crrraaack-** Ranma had barely managed jumping away and the bench shattered under the powerful swing. The others quickly tried to gain some distance from the pretty one-sided fight -as Ranma was only avoiding strikes, though they now knew that this was for a very good reason, as Ranma didn't want to get into even more trouble.

"Just when I thought it would be a good day!" Ranma complained, while evading further strikes. She felt that this day probably would end on a lousy note. She had known that it would come to this, knowing her luck.

"Oh no, what can we do? I fear we have so much firepower, we could accidently kill her should we try to interfere while transformed," Ami worried after they'd retreated to a safe distance.

"Naru, can't you try your trick with the plants? There are enough of those around," Usagi suggested.

"I never tried that actively and I wonder if I can do that out of uniform," Naru admitted, actually having no idea how to command the plants to help Ranma. "I'll try, but I have no clue what to do."

o

Sailor Pluto tensed a little when returning to the Gates of Time for the first time in 16 years. She'd held off on doing this until now, but the precise instruments in the gate were the only way she could finally gauge exactly how much in flux the timeline was. She hadn't dared to do so earlier out of fear of again being trapped in this hell. Thankfully nothing happened, she felt that the chamber was open and she could leave it at any time she pleased.

Not wanting to spend any more time than absolutely needed in this place, she quickly checked the gate.

As she'd feared, her escape actually had put everything in such a state of flux, that it would be completely impossible to predict anything further away than a day, and even that was difficult. Just looking at the numbers made her head hurt. Combined with the fact that apart from some general knowledge most of the stuff she knew would soon become useless, it meant she soon would have make decisions on sight alone.

She just did a final quick check of the present and got a message that there was a serious possible temporal turning point arriving in less than a minute. That was unusual ,as these points were extraordinary rare and generally meant that something in the lives of the Senshi was about to undergo a fundamental change without outside intervention. It almost always meant a Catch 22 that she'd have to prevent.

Looking at what was happening, her eyes widened. _Oh shit, that's not good!_

All of the possible outcomes without her swift intervention would cause something really bad to happen to the Senshi, and it all was connected to Ranma. The boy still had the ability to sometimes bring things to a head. Pluto however didn't want it to come to that and teleported away at once. Her interference was needed, or things would go really bad.

o

#"Ayeeeee! What the...?"# After several minutes of fruitlessly trying to hit the girl, Xian-Pu felt something wrapping itself around her left ankle, yanking hard. She had no time to react, lost her footing and fell flat onto her face, losing her mace in the process.

Ranma had no idea what exactly had made this vine -wherever it had come from- decide to wrap itself around her opponent's ankle, although seeing Naru's astonished face was answer enough.

_That trick with plants certainly comes in handy, _Ranma thought, yet there was no time to celebrate as the girl was already attempting to get back up. Ranma didn't waste a moment and kicked the mace away.

"You are weaponless. Give up as long as you still can," Ranma told her under no certain terms, hoping that would get through her thick skull.

"Weapon or no weapon, you must die," the Chinese girl groaned, her face still hurting from the harsh landing, while trying to get up again.

Ranma wanted to retort to that, however, what happened next stopped her in her tracks.

"I have no choice, I..." Xian-Pu stopped as soon as looking up.

First thing Xian-Pu saw was an angry-red glowing orb. Said orb was mounted on a key-shaped staff. And said staff was held by a not very amused looking woman with green hair wearing the strangest battle dress she'd ever seen. And her red eyes were very deep, making clear that she was not one to be crossed.

"Who... who are you?" she finally managed to say while getting up, keeping a healthy distance from the woman who pointed the staff at her.

"My name is Sailor Pluto, and Ranma Saotome is under my protection. Stop this vendetta of yours, as long as you still can."

Xian-Pu felt like making a run for it. The woman's voice was full of authority and power, making her feel like a little girl that was about to get the spanking of her life. Taking all the courage she'd left, she said "Why... should I? This is none of your concern."

"It is very much my concern." Her red eyes seemed to stare holes into her, so intense was the look she gave her. "Should Ranma die, it'll free the way for forces far worse than anything you can imagine." Seeing the girl's blank look, she added "You don't believe me? Then I'll show you what the fate of the world will be, once the darkness faces no more opposition."

Before she knew it, Xian-Pu felt her eyes drawn to the glowing orb, and lost herself in the redness.

"Not that I'm ungrateful, but why did you appear all of a sudden?" Ranma asked when seeing that the girl didn't react to any outside stimuli any longer. "This came quite out of the blue."

"I actually do have my reasons. Every outcome without my interference would have ended in disaster. Had she killed you, then the Senshi would have been crushed over this and it would have been easy for the Dark Kingdom to murder them. Had you killed her, the guilt would have driven you to seppuku, with the same end result. Had you managed to make her give up, then her people would have sworn vengeance over this insult, giving the Dark Kingdom the chance to strike when the Senshi were distracted. And of course there was always the scenario of you two killing each other. End result every time: the world would have been boned."

Ranma felt her head spinning at this revelation. "Man, why does it always have to be stuff like that? I just wish fate would leave me the hell alone."

Meanwhile, Ami looked at the mesmerized girl. "What exactly did you do to her?"

"She'll see what would happen to the world should darkness win; see the armies of darkness march over the world. The spell will do so in her own frame of reference, so that she truly understands. She should start to react soon."

_She was standing in a wasteland, the grass had been burned away, the trees bare and black, as if having gone through a huge fire. The sky was red, as if bleeding, and there was no sound apart from the howling wind. As if the world had died a horrible death._

Seeing the girl starting to twitch, Usagi took a closer look. "I wonder what she is seeing?"

_It was horrible. They were all dead. The whole village, just a burnt-out empty shell, filled with the rotting bodies of its inhabitants. Horrified, she blindly ran and everything shifted around her. Now she was in a city, and she saw the same horror, only magnitudes worse. The world had died._

Watching her collapse and arche as if going through some kind of pain while starting to cry, Naru shook her head. "Isn't it cruel to force her through whatever it is? She seems to be horribly scared."

"I don't like doing it, but she has to understand and stop her vendetta," Pluto replied, while closely monitoring the girl.

_She was almost blind with tears by now, this was a nightmare come real. Then she heard the sound of marching boots banging onto the ground. A whole army was marching towards her, the faces of the soldiers empty of all emotion, as if they just were without life. They didn't seem to see her at all, while she felt unable to move._

Hearing her scream in fear, they really hoped it would be over soon. Even though she'd tried to murder Ranma some moments ago, they now felt sorry for her.

_She didn't have any chance, the soldiers marched over her, and like they did to the world, they smashed her to bits under their boots._

#"No...please... no..."# she sobbed when waking up from the nightmare. They all knew by the way she looked at them with tear-filled eyes, that she no longer would be any danger.

* * *

_..._

_Nobody could remember how long things had went the way they did in the village of Joketsuzoku. They just did. No one ever questioned it any longer. At least until that fateful days 30 years ago, after which things would never be the same again._

_On a normal, unremarkable day, a young man named Wen Shizang and his wife visited the village during their treck through the region. From their perspective, he was unremarkable, looking even weaker than their males. The woman however was a skilled and highly successful fighter, so the village champion wanted to fight against her. The champion lost, but then Wen Shizang had to watch her giving his wife first a kiss, only to kill her by snapping her neck in an unprovoked attack seconds later._

_They told him to take the body and get lost. His grief right then turned into hatred and he swore that they were barbarians and that they would regret the day. They only laughed at the threat, saying that a small weakling male could never measure up to them. They quickly forgot the incident after he'd left, after all it was just one more corpse. Life went on for three months._

_Then Wen Shizang returned._

_This time he wasn't alone. As they'd later learn, he was a very influential man with connections very deep into the Communist Party of China. While before their area simply had been too remote for anyone to care, the Communists, made aware by Wen Shizang, were now there to sink their claws into it to underline their control over all of China. A whole army of soldiers was the means to get the message through._

_Having not bothered much with the outside world for centuries, they didn't know what to expect and sent almost half their warriors against the army, thinking it to be enough to deal with them. Cue in their horror when in a hailstorm of bullets the warriors were ripped to pieces. All the strength and all the powerful techniques were useless against this firepower. After going through the remains, the commander had ordered everyone to leave the village or risk it being destroyed by their artillery._

_Cue in their surprise when they saw Wen Shizang, who then pointed out the warrior champion who had killed his wife, calling her "the murderous barbarian bitch". Under everyones eyes, the woman was singled out and forced onto her knees while Wen Shizang approached her from behind with a gun in his hands. Holding it against the back of her head, he fired and the smell of vomit filled the area, as many of the villagers had to vomit when seeing half of the woman's face being blown away from the inside._

_A hard time followed. The Communists built a big military complex near by, to put their rule into stone. The village had to pay high taxes every year and endure the occasional humiliating visits of communist inspectors. Seeing that a kiss of death had brought this onto them, the law was quickly abolished, as were the ancient marriage laws to outsiders. Their neighbors of the Musk were no help, as their clever king had quickly allied with the Communists and for pleading allegiance to Peking, was left alone._

_The years following were hard. The modern world forced its way into the tribe. Also, the men of the tribe had been shown first hand how male soldiers had simply slaughtered the warriors and the new ideas entering the village changed them. Many men in the years to come would leave the village forever and the warriors became painfully aware how all the jobs they'd felt beneath them -and therefore delegated to men- actually were vital to the village._

_And now the village was suffering from a shortage of men, lack of skilled labour and a deep rift having formed between the genders, resulting in dwindling births. Joketsuzoku was in deep trouble._

_..._

Everyone had listened to her story with a mixture of amazement of compassion.

Xian-Pu herself still couldn't believe how kindly they treated her even after she'd tried to kill their friend, who turned out to be under the curse of one of the pools and actually was male. Not that she would try anything with him, not after what she'd seen. He was off-limits. Right now here she was sitting, wearing a comfortable yukata while her clothes were drying (they had to be washed after she'd discovered that she'd had a little 'accident') and was nursing a cup of warm tea.

The girls had felt that after she'd given up on doing anything to Ranma, seeing her so distressed and soaked -after all she had been on the ground during rain- they should at least try to make her feel better. So Ami had suggested to take her to her place, since her mother wouldn't be back until the evening. She'd added that while Ranma's parents right now would deserve an apology for what had happened yesterday, including the partial destruction of the perimeter fence, Ranma's mother would be too curious for her own good, so that was out.

So they'd helped her and the surprised girl, who hadn't expected so much kindness, had eagerly answered their questions, delving into the story of her village. Now that she was done, she waited what they'd say.

"That's...yuuuck... I'm actually glad that this had happened before your time and you hadn't been forced to witness that, Shampoo," Usagi finally said in empathy.

Xian-Pu winced. That already was the tenth time her name got butchered. While she didn't want her name to be turned into that of a hair-care product, it seemed that Japanese simply couldn't grasp the finer pronunciation of it and she'd have to get used to it. Looking up she saw Ranma holding his distance and couldn't blame him after what had happened.

"And that's only the history of my village. Tell me, what do you think my position in the village is?" she asked, already knowing what they'd say.

"You are well respected and you have no shortage of possible boyfriends?" Usagi guessed, only to get a humorless laugh in return.

"I knew it. Don't be fooled at how good I look or how big my tits are." Noticing some interesting reactions at the last bit, she continued "Let's make it short. The men see in me everything they dislike in warriors clinging to the old status quo, the warriors think I'm an arrogant upstart, the elders still treat me like a child and others of my age either hate or avoid me. Despite it being home, I learned to hate living there and then breaking the law by giving the kiss of death threw my reputation into a bottomless barrel."

"You almost sound like you enjoyed chasing me through half of China," Ranma finally remarked after having stayed silent the entire time, finding this a little difficult to believe.

"I didn't like the idea of killing you for something as stupid as losing to you, but I did enjoy the freedom it gave me once you lost me," Xian-Pu admitted. "I was actually happy in Shanghai, doing whatever I wanted, having real fun and stuffing myself with fastfood. And then one of the warriors tracked me down, beat me green and blue and I again had to find you."

"You sound like you don't even want to return to your village at all," Naru observed.

"I don't, but I also have no choice. They'd send another warrior to again track me down, should I stay away for too long." She made clear that there would be no easy solution to this situation. Either way, someone would lose. "I have no idea what to do now."

"Maybe I can offer a solution."

#"Ahhh!"# **-skliiir- **Scared by the sudden appearance of Pluto, she dropped her teacup, which shattered on the floor.

"Mom won't like this..." Ami groaned when seeing that it had been one of the more expensive ones.

Pluto knew she should stop doing these surprise appearances, but it had become such a force of habit. "Sorry... Xian-Pu, what would you say if I can give you a solution to your problem?"

"You actually pronounced my name right." That alone surprised her. "I actually have no idea what's going on, or what you are, but considering I have no idea what to do about the situation, I'm listening."

Pluto had expected this reaction. "I know you would love to have more information, but that can wait until later." She then held a round, clear crystal in her hand. "I know you fear punishment, but if you return to your village and show your elders this crystal, they will understand."

Xian-Pu raised an eyebrow at the implication she would return here at a later date. "How would a crystal convince them to not punish me?"

"Trust me, once you show it to them, they know to not press the issue..."

* * *

_...the following day..._

The next day was a warm and peaceful Sunday which saw Ranma and Ami slowly making their way up the stairs to the Hikawa Shrine. Yesterday had been quiet after Xian-Pu had left, but this morning Ranma's mother had asked him a favor.

That morning she'd read in the newspaper that in the last days, a number of people had vanished around the Hikawa Shrine. Concerned since the head priest was a friend of the family, she had tried to reach the shrine by phone, but had only gotten the answering machine on the other end. So she'd asked Ranma to go to the shrine and see if everything was OK. People mysteriously disappearing... on a hunch he'd called Ami in case there was something to it.

Finally they arrived at the temple grounds. It was empty, which was little wonder after the scare story in the newspaper, which obviously made people avoid the place. Then he spotted the elder Hino approaching him. However, something seemed strange to him so he quickly gave Ami a silent sign to leave all the talking to him.

"Hello and welcome to the Hikawa Shrine. How may I be of help to you two young people?" the old man asked.

"Well, me and my girlfriend, we wonder if we can make appointments for spiritual advice?" Ranma asked, acting like a clueless idiot.

"Of course you can, tomorrow at four is free. I just need your name."

"Ryoga Hibiki," Ranma said without blinking an eye. "And thanks, we'll be here tomorrow."

They left and walked down the stairs, but as soon as they were at the bottom near the wall, they quickly hid behind the trees. "That's not Grandpa Hino! Whoever that is, this guy treated me like a total stranger," Ranma finally explained his behavior. "At first he just felt off compared to what he was when I met him the first time, but now..."

"You think the Dark Kingdom got him?" Seeing Ranma giving her a grave look, she quickly pulled out her transformation wand and Ranma looked the other way to give her some privacy. After that was done, she pulled out her communicator, since they would need reinforcements on this one.

_"Ami? What's the matter? We're just enjoying a good movie in the cinema. Do you know how weird it feels when something vibrates in your subspace pocket?"_ Usagi whined as soon as her picture appeared on the small screen.

She wouldn't comment on that; there was no time. "Naru is with you? Good, come to the Hikawa Shrine now. We suspect the Dark Kingdom has started another plot."

_"What is it with the bad guys that we can't even enjoy a weekend? Ok, we'll try to get there,"_ Usagi complained, before cutting the connection.

"She sometimes really make me wonder..." No, he didn't want to comment on that as well. He then noticed Mercury wearing a blue, transparent visor while typing on her computer. "Nice gadget."

"Thanks, it comes together with the computer in a package." Looking through the trees with her scanner mode, she arched an eyebrow. "There is a lot of interference going on up there. I'm reading three moving persons, but only one of them is giving off heat."

"Probably this jerk Jadeite. Met the guy only once, but already dislike him." Ranma found it amazing how much he could dislike someone. "The two others probably are monsters disguised as Grandpa Hino and his granddaughter."

"That would fit with them having no body heat..." Mercury tried to see more. "There is something going on in the storage building that is a little aside of the other buildings and I detect two lifesigns in the main temple, but they are faint."

"Have I told you that it is impressive what you can do?" Ranma asked her, impressed how much she was able to find out just by using her computer and her brains. It was impressive and reinforced his opinion that while she was no fighter, she did have strengths in other fields.

"Several times already. After all, what would your math score be without me?" Seeing Ranma wince a little at the reminder, she then saw Sailor Moon and Ceres arriving. "Looks like we are complete."

"I'm actually glad that Akane knows our secret. When we told her in the cinema that we have to go, she said that she wasn't as arrogant to think that she could help and opted to watch the movie," Naru told them, before Ami quickly explained the situation.

Ceres then caught Moon looking around. "What are you looking for?"

"I want to make sure that this jerk isn't around."

Everyone felt like groaning. It had become obvious that Usagi had a healthy dislike for Mamoru Chiba and made no secret of it. They felt it was childish, especially since Mamoru had honestly tried to apologise for how he'd treated her. That she would go so far to try and not have him in battle was just over the top.

Ranma wouldn't say a word, but he did notice someone hiding in one of the trees and the top hat gave away who that was. He had to give it to the guy that while his outfit was ridiculous, he knew quite well how to hide and wait for the surprise effect. He would not give him away and let him be, as ratting him out was against the code of fighters.

"So what's the plan?" Moon then asked, looking to Mercury.

Mercury knew that nominally Sailor Moon was their leader, but thankfully Usagi had quickly realised that she was far from competent and was not above asking for help. "We have to think about the disappeared people, so we have to draw the enemy out into the yard. And Ranma, you can't help us in that fight."

"Hey, wait a second..." Ranma started to protest.

"Ranma, if Jadeite sees you, he'll make the connection to your family and can do horrible things to them to hurt you," she reminded him. That shut him up and she saw she'd made her point. "Your job is to free the people while we engage the enemy. Start with the main temple first."

"All right, but I'll need a distraction. You fight the bad guys in the yard while I'll free them," Ranma agreed to her plan.

"How are we supposed to draw them out?" Ceres wondered.

Ranma rolled his eyes. Leave it to him to state the obvious.

o

Inside the storage building of the temple grounds, Jadeite observed the people they'd kidnapped, all of them girls and woman who'd come to this shrine to pray for having luck in love, hovering in the fluid tanks. He knew that very soon this operation would have to get abandoned thanks to attracting attention, but until then these girls would be useful.

It had been laughably easy to make sure that the priest and his granddaughter wouldn't interfere with him taking over and luring templegoers into getting converted into living batteries. He'd discovered that kidnapping a certain number of people and keeping them healthy while under a constant, low energy drain would pay off better in the end. So these females were constantly strengthened and fed with the special fluid while draining them. They'd suck them dry once it would be time to leave.

"Master Jadeite!" Turning around, he saw two Youma he'd used to impersonate the priest and his granddaughter, enter. "Master, Sailor Senshi have arrived, three of them. They demand to see you."

Jadeite raised an eyebrow. Three Senshi? That meant that it was true; they were awakening. Not that it concerned him too much, but it would make things much more complicated. "They demand to see me? I have to leave it to them that they have lots of nerve to do that."

Walking into the yard, he spotted them. Sailor Moon, he already knew. The other two were new and there was sign of the fake princess. The one with the blue skirt and short black hair was undoubtedly the Senshi of Mercury, in his opinion a lesser threat. As for the other Senshi... his interest rose when seeing her holding the sickle of Ceres, which could mean only one thing.

"Well, the little weakling Senshi has returned. Too bad I can't chop off your head again, since I didn't have my sword with me," he gloated, enjoying to see the girl flinch.

"Cut that out, Jadeite!" Sailor Moon tried to appear confident, but his presence made her nervous. "You know why we are here. Release these people at once!"

"Hmmm, no." Jumping up, he hovered above the yard. "I have to decline. You can take this up with my two associates. Xanth, Doloras! Show them why they shouldn't interfere in our matters."

The Senshi saw the two beings that had looked like an old priest and a miko suddenly turn into rather ugly looking Youma wearing a parody of what they'd been wearing in their disguise. It wasn't that they looked like demons, they more looked like mishappened humans with a bad skin condition that made their skin pale with disgusting carbuncles. They prayed that their minimal fighting skills -consisting mainly of throwing around magic blasts- would be enough to prevail against two of these things.

Judging by the crash he heard, Ranma guessed that the fight had started.

However, as much as he wanted to help, he right now had another important task. No one noticed him while he sneaked in through the back door into the temple. According to Ami, the two were in the room containing the sacred flame. He had to be careful, as that room had a door to the yard. Once he had sneaked in however, he faced no opposition, getting to his final destination easily, the flame illuminating the room in a flickering, reddish light.

_Well, that's surely a way to nail someone,_ he thought, when seeing the state in which these two were.

They didn't look hurt, but there was some kind of strange stone rune sitting on the floor that kept them as if frozen in time, although that could not be the case, as he saw them breathe and their eyes moved, noticing him. Ranma didn't didn't care what exactly it was and also didn't waste any time and smashed the rune into bits with his foot, freeing them.

"Thank you...we'd been like that for days," Grandfather Hino thanked him.

"Yes, thanks to that blond jerk! He came here three days ago and trapped us just like that," Rei heatedly told him, wishing she could pay whoever that was back. However, she wasn't that stupid. Not after the first time getting creamed just like that.

Ranma understood her anger, being victimised was very humiliating. "I can imagine. Come on, let's get out of here."

**-BOOOOOM- -Craaack- **An explosion suddenly shook the ground and the smaller of the two Youma flew through the door, smashing into Rei, which in return knocked her right into the sacred flame, which suddenly flared up, engulfing her! The Youma didn't notice and left right away to return to battle.

"REI!" Grandfather Hino gasped, but the heat of the flame was forcing him and Ranma back.

They saw to their surprise however, that Rei didn't seem to be in any pain, standing up in the middle of the flame and looking in wonder at her hands that weren't hurt, while her clothes burned away, leaving her bare. Thankfully the way the flames danced around her, everything critical was covered by them.

_What's this? The fire doesn't hurt me. It feels actually good, _Rei thought in confusion.

_"That is, because you are one with it. The flame would never hurt its friends."_

Rei's eyes widened when hearing this voice in her head. _Who...who are you? Are you the spirit of the sacred flame?_

_"We are not who you think we are, but we are friends who want to help you. We have long waited for you, child of the flame. Please accept our help to unlock your true strength."_

Rei felt, that this was the right thing to do, feeling welcome by the fire. _Yes..._

They watched in awe when a hot-yellow and red sigl flared up on Rei's forehead, looking like the male symbol. In front of her, a small wand with the same symbol on top appeared, floating in the fire. Taking it into her hands, Rei held it above her head, and the words came to her out of nowhere.

"Mars Power, make up!"

Since she already was naked, there was no bright flash. Instead, the flames of the sacred fire mostly died down, while flames erupted from the wand, tightly hugging Rei's body, forming her Senshi uniform. The color scheme of it was mostly red, apart from some dark purple bits, and unlike the others she didn't wear boots but high heels. Ranma wasn't fazed by that anymore, but grandfather Hino wasn't happy about the outfit. While he loved looking after girls, he had no wish for his granddaughter to walk around like that and get ogled by other men.

All of a sudden two smaller fireballs erupted from the sacred flame, circling around Sailor Mars until they took the form of two crows. "We're alive! Finally after this long time!" they sang in happiness to the amazement of the two men. Judging by the voices, one crow was male and the other female.

_Well, after talking c-c-c... that shouldn't surprise me. And they are a lot nicer than these things,_ Ranma thought when getting over his surprise.

Sailor Mars meanwhile stepped out of the fire and looked through the hole in the door, literally starting to burn with anger. She walked towards it, while another explosion echoes through the yard.

o

While this had happened, the Senshi had tried to fight their foes. Emphasis on "tried". Jadeite had clearly learned from his previous attempts and this time had brought along two real heavy hitters.

The female Youma called Doloras, who had impersonated Rei, was a damn good fighter, maybe even coming close to Ranma's level, and had no problem with showing it. She was jumping all over the place, raining punches and kicks against her enemies. The Senshi already felt as if their bodies were covered with bruises -what they actually were- and silently cursed that Ranma couldn't help them in this battle, as this was an enemy that would have been perfect for him to fight against.

And then there was the male Youma Xanth, who had impersonated grandfather Hino. While smaller and obviously not as skilled as Doloras, he was damn fast, zipping all over the place while slashing with the claws on his hands. They already had some pretty nasty gashes from that and their uniforms were partially ripped apart.

It was clear, their lack of combat skill was to their disadvantage and Jadeite mocked them for it.

Tuxedo Mask had finally decided to enter the battle when seeing how poorly the girls were doing. He'd made a precise shot and the rose had embedded itself into the male Youma's chest, before blowing up, sending him crashing through a door of the main temple. Not that it had stopped him, as he reappeared seconds later, only looking a bit burned.

"What are these things made of?" he wondered aloud, while battling away the little runt with his cane.

Jadeite laughed. "Xanth and Doloras are specially trained for combat. You can only fight by blasting around magic. Well, they are too fast for you to blast them and they are explosion-proof and can take quite a beating."

Mask believed that at once. Considering how strangely destructive his cane was and how much he'd already hit this little pest without much of an effect. Thankfully he was in a much better shape than the girls, as this thing had only managed to shred his cape and his fencing training helped to hold the Youma at bay while the other monster ignored him, seemingly not seeing him as a threat.

"I have no idea who you clown are, but it's only a matter of time, before Xanth rips you into pieces," Jadeite gloated further, finding it ridiculous how that man could go into battle like this.

_This is getting ridiculous, I have to put an end to it fast!_ Mask thought, trying to find any kind of weak spot on that thing. While he certainly could throw his explosive roses in rapid succession, they weren't doing enough damage. He had to... Actually he did have an idea.

Xanth was not concerned when the masked man threw another rose, but this one hit him right into the eye. "AAAAHHHHHHRRR!" he screamed in pain, only to get another one into his wide-open mouth. **-BLAAMMM-** Then he felt nothing more when the rose blew his head apart from the inside.

"Xanth!" Doloras couldn't believe that this joke had managed to destroy him. However, she would soon have another problem.

**"You damn bitch!"**

Everyone turned their heads to see that another Sailor Senshi had appeared on the yard while they'd been occupied with the destruction of the Youma. She was literally burning with anger, flames dancing over her. That actually was no wonder, since she was really ticked off at what the intruders had done and did spot the mockery that had impersonated her.

**"DIE!"** Doloras had no chance when the new Senshi threw a massive fireball at her, incinerating her instantly.

"Damn it!" Jadeite cursed, wondering how things could have fallen apart so fast. And to add to it, a fourth Senshi was bad news, especially this damn flamethrower. While he had his secured energy haul, Beryl would rip him a new one for losing two more Youma.

"You won this day, but I'll...ow ow ow. Damn, stop that you pests!" His departure speech got rudely interrupted when two crows started to peck on him, seriously interrupting his concentration, causing him to lose altitude. "Begone you annoying feathersacks!"

**-riiip- **"Argh!" Damn it, he'd become so distracted that this little annoyance Ceres had managed to get in a good swing with her sickle. Although the damage was minimal, just a torn sleeve and a bleeding gash that he could heal, it was humiliating to get injured by her of all people.

"Too bad you don't have your sword with you..." Ceres mocked, before preparing for another swipe.

Looking around, Jadeite saw the other Senshi and this tuxedo-pest starting to surround him, obviously ready to try and attack him, although that right now would have little effect on him. Jadeite however didn't want to fight them, not after this humiliation. First his plan falling apart, then these damn birds attacking him and finally the weakling Ceres wounding him. It was too much for one day.

Grounding his teeth together, Jadeite didn't want to bother with them anymore today. "You might have won the day, but in the end you'll lose!" Then he vanished.

* * *

_...some hours later..._

Finally they could talk.

Things had become rather hectically after Jadeite had vanished, as the tubes in which he'd held his capitives had vanished as well and they had now a shed full of naked and confused girls to deal with. So before anything could happen, they'd quickly agreed to explain everything later, told Rei how to change back (of course she did that in her room) and then, with exception of Ranma and Ami, left so that they could deal with the police. It had cost them some nerves, but their story of kidnappers who wanted to sell the girls and had locked in the inhabitants of the shrine had stuck and the captives couldn't remember a thing about it anyway.

They were again all gathered inside the temple while Pluto again told the entire story. She looked a little annoyed that another civilian was in it now, but at least the old priest had promised to not tell anyone. No one knew that she had spoken to the two crows earlier and made them promise to not tell anyone one particular detail they knew very well. The identity of the Moon Princess had to stay secret for now. So when she was finally done, she waited for reactions.

"I'm a reincarnated warrior form the past? I need a little to let this sink in," Rei finally said.

What she'd went through and what they'd told her was incredible. All of a sudden her boring life didn't look so boring any longer. However, that also raised the problem that while she was expected to work together with them, especially the blonde also seemed eager for them actually becoming friends. Rei had little idea how to do that, as she didn't have any friends and was unsure if she could do so.

Her grandfather seemed to have read her thoughts. "Rei, why don't you sleep over this and try to see how you get along with them tomorrow after school? You and your hopefully new friends can meet here whenever you want in the future."

Rei rolled her eyes. "Does it have to do with the fact that most of them are good-looking girls?"

"A little, but I also don't want you to shelter yourself away any longer and I can see how important it is for them to have a place where they can meet without problem." He then thought about something. "And good thing the lady told us you have no choice, or I would never let you walk around wearing that thing."

Rei sometimes really wondered about her grandfather. He liked to look after teenage girls, but when it came to her, he suddenly became very critical. "I'm surprised you are taking all this so well."

"When you deal with spiritual things all your life, you get used to it and I can feel how important this is. Oh, and I hope this finally gives you enough of a spine to stand up to your father."

Rei knew he would say that. After all, he was waiting for the day when she would finally put her father into his place and end this farce of an intact family. She then looked to the two crows. "Ok, we have heard the story, except yours. Some introductions would be nice."

"I thought you would never ask," the male crow said. "My name is Phobos, and this here is my sister Deimos. We are to be your companions, advisors and hopefully, your friends."

"Who names his kids Fear and Terror? Who would want to actually use that kind of name?" Ranma openly asked, for once actually knowing what the names meant.

"Well, who names his kid Ranma? Wild Horse, do you even know what implications come with that?" Deimos challenged him and saw with satisfaction how the boy tried to come up with an answer. "Thought so... You shouldn't judge just by such things. After all, Mars' sigl is the male symbol, yet she's quite obviously a girl." The crow shook its head, done with ranting. "By the way, where is Luna? I really want to get all the gossip from her."

"She stayed home. Ranma has...uhm, a problem with that kind of animals," Usagi carefully said. "I'll bring her tomorrow."

Usagi had been strangely quiet the entire time and blushed every time she looked to Mamoru. Maybe she now felt embarrassed over how she'd treated Mamoru after experiencing him in action when he'd saved her from getting her arm ripped off by the smaller of the two Youma. Maybe it also was how selflessly he'd healed the three of them after the battle, stating that since he was trying to become a doctor, he also had sworn to help people in need.

It was clear that sooner or later, she'd ask him to forgive her.

Phobos looked a little annoyed that his sister had derailed his explanations. "As I wanted to explain before I was interrupted, we are actually no real crows, this just is the mortal form given to us this time, we actually are fire sprites and had had already several different forms, including a very memorable human one..."

"Ignore that, my brother is just a huge horndog. Wouldn't wonder me if he gives a crow lady a full nest in the foreseeable future," Deimos added when hearing that.

"Oh, you be silent. I still remember that you during your human time weren't much better. I at least stuck with only dating one gender," Phobos complained.

Rei felt her head spinning. Her advisors sounded more like some sitcom characters and she wondered if her nerves could cope with it. "Is there any weirdness you haven't told me about yet?"

"Well, that was basically it, if you didn't count me changing gender according to water temperature." Ranma then noticed Rei staring at him in disbelief, her eyes having become as big as dinner plates (not literally). "Oooops, guess I should have told her more carefully?" he asked.

Ami shook her head. "Ranma, you need to learn to keep quiet sometimes."

* * *

_...Dark Kingdom..._

"I have to say Jadeite, that I'm disappointed..."

"It wasn't my fault! These damn Senshi are spreading like a pest; I had been faced by four of them," Jadeite tried to defend himself, feeling completely humiliated by this loss, especially by the part that the weakling Ceres had played in it. He wouldn't mention this tuxedo-clad bastard and getting pecked by two crows, as that was simply too embarrassing.

"Ohhh, the big bad Jadeite got his ass spanked by a bunch of girls," Nephrite snorted. "What a sissy."

Jadeite turned angry to Nephrite. "You talk much but don't lift a finger! Just shut up you..."

"That's enough!" Beryl commanded in a threatening voice that shut up Jadeite. "Jadeite, be thankful that your successful harvests despite your losses make me not consider a punishment. You are to concentrate all your power on your big project until I say different. Do you understand?"

Jadeite knew that this was an order, and he would never dare to defy an order from his queen. "Yes, Queen Beryl," he finally said in defeat, before vanishing from sight.

Nephrite chuckled. This pretty much was a demotion for Jadeite; to be under a curfew in the Dark Kingdom was damn humiliating. It also meant that he now had the best chance to rise in his queen's favor by doing something productive instead of being on a wild goose chase for the Silver Crystal. He would gladly leave that unthankful task to Zoisite and Kunzite. May they find the needle in the haystack.

"Jadeite... He is a fool in his methods, always trying it the brute force way," Nephrite snorted. "I on the other way have discovered a way to extract the same amount of energy that he drains from a big group from a single person."

"That sounds interesting. Nephrite, how do you plan to accomplish this feat?" Beryl asked in interest.

"Every person has times in their lives, where they have energy spikes that are far above the normal. With the help of the stars, I can find out who is next to have such a spike and manipulate their bodies into storing all the energy in a Youma I infuse into them. Even better, their very being will be manipulated to further the activity that creates the energy for maximum efficiency and harvest. The end result is a Youma as a living storage battery for all the excess energy, which we can use as we please."

"Yes, this sounds very promising. You are to leave at once, I want results soon," she ordered him.

"With pleasure, your majesty," Nephrite saluted, before disappearing.

Behind a column, Jadeite grounded his teeth together in helpless anger after hearing all of this. This ass-kisser really had managed to get the queen to listen to him and she actually approved his plan. He could barely tolerate this humiliation. But he'd show this windbag what he was made of and his big plan would put him back into his queen's favor. Also Nephrite's overconfidence would be his undoing, Jadeite was sure of that.

_You made fun of me, but you'll soon learn that things work different outside of your sanctuary and I'll laugh at you once you fail,_ he silently vowed.

A little later, Nephrite felt he was ready to take on the challenge.

Having made his headquarters in an abandoned mansion at the outskirts of Tokyo, Nephrite couldn't be more pleased with how things were proceeding. He now had permission to upstage Jadeite, which in his mind would be very easy, considering that he thought of the man as a total idiot. It would only be a matter of finding the right person who'd have a huge energy spike, and then strike at the right moment to harvest a huge batch at once.

Watching the starfield build up in the main chamber, he overconfidently felt that this would be too easy.

Finally the stars were ready to give him guidance. Stepping into the middle of the starfield, he looked at the beauty before him. "The stars know everything..." He gazed into the constellations. "Ah, the constellation of Leo is ready to catch and devour its prey."

Finally a light beam hit his forehead and gave him the information needed on who would be under this star that soon would be granted a maximum of energy. A picture of the target appeared before him in the starfield. He had now everything he'd need to proceed.

"You are my first target... Ranma Saotome."

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"The Cat is unchained"**_

**Notes:**

**You have probably noticed that Shampoo is significantly different from her canon self. Well, that has several reasons. First of course, in canon she didn't have much of a personality. Second, in canon she talked like an idiot, while here she talks normal. Third of course I felt that the whole tribe was a joke and again injected some realistic what could have happened, which resulted in her current personality.**

**More about Usagi and Mamoru is found in the next chapter, as I didn't want to cram it into this one.**

**Now, you probably could complain over some of the bloody details (like in the flashback), well ,that's because of my writing style. I always hated sociopathic comedy like the canon of Ranma, that after some chapter lost until the last few chapters, any kind of continuous story, as well as the canon of Sailor Moon, which was stuffed with filler. Basically my approach is, that things do have consequences and that the real world intrudes rather unpleasently. Essentially, I'm stripping away the comedy shield and give it a more realistic feeling, even though some might not like it. However, I'll never sink into the angst-fests of some authors (I'm good at avoiding these, as seen in my NGE story).**


	10. The Cat is unchained

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

Drama ensures...

**This one went fast, wow! I can't make many comments, as this would contain spoilers, so for notes, read at the end of the chapter.**

**Note that specific notes are at the end of the chapter, to avoid spoilers.**

* * *

**Chapter 9: The Cat is unchained**

"Where is Ranma? I thought he was interested in this," Rei asked, when looking around, seeing no sign of him.

Ami looked around the gathered group in the Hikawa Shrine. They'd gathered so they could get Rei better known and allow Mamoru to tell his story. This was bound to be interesting and important, as Rei's cooperation was essential and she right now was still pretty much a stranger. However, Ranma was absent and Ami knew why that was. She hoped she could tell them without getting nervous, as Ranma hadn't been happy with what had happened.

"There had been a little incident in the locker room in the last period and Ranma took that badly," Ami tried to explain. Seeing the looks the others gave her, she knew she had to explain. "All right, but I tell you only once..."

As it turned out, Ranma's threat of dire consequences should anyone try to do anything funny in the locker room hadn't penetrated everyones heads. One student from the grade above Ranma's had obviously thought Ranma to be bluffing and his common sense had taken a vacation while one less seen body part had taken over the thinking. That was bound to end up in disaster and it did right after the end of gym class.

Ranma had just left the showers and was bending over to take things out of his locker, when he'd gotten splashed by a bucket of cold water from said idiot, who afterwards at once fondled girl-Ranma's ass. He shouldn't have done that because after two seconds of confusion, Ranma had become furious and a backwards kick into the nuts stunned the moron while Ranma needed just a second to dry off and put on undershirt and boxers, noting that the others were all looking away, obviously having more sense than this moron.

The guy was even smaller than girl-Ranma, so she'd held him upside-down by the ankle and under everyone's eyes dunked him head-first into one of the toilets, flushing each time she did so. After finally letting go of the idiot, she told him that next time she'd pick one that had just been used. After that demonstration, everyone knew that Ranma was not bluffing.

"...and he was still really angry afterwards. So he went home to vent his anger with training," Ami concluded her explanation of what had happened.

"Had this happened to me, I would've lynched the idiot." Rei hadn't believed the whole gender-changing until Ranma had demonstrated it and she still was trying to understand what a huge burden this had to be for him.

"As interesting as this might be for some, I think we're not here to talk about the pervs at school," Akane finally said in mild annoyance. "After all you promised me I'd learn a little more about your new team mate and our mystery man here."

"Yes, I can tell Ranma everything later and with him not being here, Luna at least doesn't have to hide," Ami said, then looked to where Luna was busy with talking to Deimos, Phobos keeping his distance from the females.

"Maybe we should start with us telling Rei and Mamoru about us, and then they can tell us their story?" Naru suggested, while observing how quiet Usagi still was. This started to get ridiculous, Usagi and Mamoru should talk and clear this up.

So the girls told Rei and Mamoru about themselves.

When they were finally done, they waited which of the two would start. In the end, it was Rei who did so.

"Well, to be honest my life isn't the most interesting one. Up to now I went to school and tended to the shrine. Not something you can write a novel about. My mother died when I was young and my useless father felt that his political career in the government of greater Tokyo was more important and handed me off to my grandfather."

Naru's eyes widened. "Wait a moment... Please don't tell me you father is Takashi Hino. This slimy guy is in the middle of a re-election campaign, I read about that in the newspaper."

Rei rolled her eyes. "Oh great, I totally forgot about that. Yes, it's him and he on occassion uses me to show the media the 'caring family man'. Guess he'll show up here every day now. Well... apart from that I'm a good singer and compose my own songs. I'm going to the T*A school for girls, but don't have any friends and grandfather has chased away the few boys I managed to get interested in."

"No friends?" Usagi wondered. She couldn't imagine someone having no friends.

"Not one. Most don't want to be friends with a miko. They accept me as the girl in school who has the most to say, but otherwise... And the rest doesn't want to deal with me because of my temper. I hate to admit it, but sometimes I can be downright choleric."

"I don't care, no one should be this alone all the time," Usagi declared, then swallowed when Mamoru gave her an interesting look. The silence stretched between these two.

**-Wham-** That was Naru slamming her hands onto the table. "Ok, I watched this for long enough. Usagi, if you have something to say to Mamoru, just do so now. Please, so that it finally is done and over with."

Usagi looked a little intimidated, before finally mananging to get out what she'd tried to say since yesterday. "M-Mamoru... I...I'm sorry for being so mean to you. You helped us and healed us, even though you didn't have to."

"To be honest, I have to apologise to you as well for how I treated you before that. We both haven't acted like role models in that regard," he finally said. "What do you say, let's forget that and start anew?"

"About time," Akane commented when seeing Usagi give a silent nod to that proposal.

"That's good. Now, you probably wonder about me?" Mamoru asked them, seeing that they were eager to hear more. "I think it's best if I start at the beginning. I had been in a car accident when I was young. I lost my parents that day and it really messed up my memories. So I grew up with teachers and became rather intellectual. To be frank, my life is mostly bland, my friend Motoki even calls me the boredom in person."

"You know Motoki?" Usagi wondered. "You know, he runs the Crown Arcade."

"That's him. Didn't know that you knew him, shows how little we really know about each other. Back to me... I led a very boring life and right now study to become a doctor. When I awakened, Endymion always took over and I had no idea what I did, while transformed. I have to thank Pluto that she restored my memory and reduced Endymion back to what he should be: a memory."

"And now you fight for the right cause? To be honest, you are one of the few males I've met recently, who actually impress me," Akane had to admit.

"And I'm glad that you are fighting with us," Phobos finally said, after being silent all the time. "I remember that relations to Earth hadn't been the best, so it actually surprises me a little how eager you are to fight at our side."

"Maybe that's because we're now living all on the same planet?" Luna asked with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

Phobos sighed. "I really miss Artemis. Where is the white furball when you need him?"

Luna rolled her eyes. "Do you know how often I asked myself that? If you are really that desperate for male companionship, I'll tell you later where to find him."

Deimos flew over to Mamoru, laughing. "I hope you really know in what kind of crack team you now are. I'll be impressed if you don't go crazy after two weeks."

"That wasn't called for. You're supposed to be my advisor and I don't think that includes insulting my team mates," Rei told the female crow, wondering why she got punished with these two as advisors. After all, they acted more like teenagers.

"Hey, great, I had no idea you are collecting manga!" Usagi suddenly quipped while holding up one of the issues.

"Hey, I didn't give you permission to take that!"

And from that point it descended into Usagi and Rei testing which of them would have more endurance at annoying the other. There was no open hostility, but alone watching this immature display made the others wonder if Deimos had been right and they had entered a crack team. It certainly was not what would be expected from the defenders of the world.

"You know her far longer than me, Naru. Is this normal for Usagi?" Akane asked, wondering if she'd landed in a bad anime. That girls of 16 years were acting like that didn't fit that well into her world view.

Naru shook her head. "As much as I want to say no, she always was this way. You get used to it and then it isn't as bad as it first looks like. Just don't make fun of her."

"I knew it... Now you see what I have to work with," Luna told Phobos in defeat. "Come, I'll tell you where to find Arty, so that we both can escape this madhouse."

Mamoru wondered if it wasn't too late to return being an ordinary student. Fighting against monsters looked easy compared to enduring the squabbling of these two girls. Getting a little distance between himself and them looked more and more like a wise idea.

Ami shook her head while watching all of this. Ranma probably wouldn't believe her when she'd later tell him all of this. Two of the Sailor Senshi, the people destined to protect Earth from the forces of evil, were annoying each other as if they were five years old. It would be amusing if not for the fact, that these two had to work together in order to protect people.

_Heaven forbid that they act like that in battle,_ she silently prayed.

Her thoughts again drifted to Ranma. She hadn't told anyone, but after seeing Ranma only in his boxers some days ago had had some interesting effects on her. While she before already had had dreams about him, they mostly had been harmless stuff, just romantic and the usual stuff of a house and kids. However, that had changed after that day and her dreams since then had been far from being innocent.

Last night had been the most intense one.

Essentially she'd watched Ranma train, only that he'd been completely nude. Then he'd declared he'd found a new art called marital arts and he'd love to demonstrate it to her. She'd agreed at once, so in one swift move he'd ripped off her clothes and then... Needless to say the rest of it had been heavily X-rated and she'd woken up in the morning with a pair of panties ready for laundry.

It disturbed Ami a little, since she'd alwas thought of herself as a good girl, who wouldn't experience such things, but nature was determined to prove her wrong. She knew by now that she was attracted to Ranma, but was still a little unsure if it was also more than just that.

She wondered how she could know for sure, while in the background Usagi felt with a manga in her hands.

* * *

_...at the same time, Saotome home..._

_The nerve of that idiot! What was he thinking? Probably nothing or his dick had replaced his head,_ Ranma still thought in anger while beating up the padded pole as best as he could to vent his anger.

The incident in the locker room had left him surprisingly angry -far more than he'd imagined possible- and after trying to tell Ami as respectful as possible that he couldn't meet with the others, he'd made a beeline for home and after changing into something more comfortable, had started to mercilessly beat up the training pole. However, that could only do so much good and it was annoying that Genma wouldn't be home until in an hour, as he right now really needed a training partner.

_Strange that when I want him to be around, he isn't,_ Ranma thought, while continuing to vent his anger.

His mother had quickly left him alone when seeing his current mood. She would get the whole story later from him and gave him his space so that he could get all the anger out of his system. He was thankful that she wouldn't press the issue until he was ready to tell her. And he wasn't that keen on telling her that her son got molested while being a girl. It was too embarrassing.

And of course there were other issues as well.

Last night he again had one of these dreams, only now it had been even more intense than the last one. This time Ami had transformed before his eyes in the dream. However, she'd only gained the tiara, gloves and boots of Sailor Mercury and had stayed naked otherwise. Afterwards they'd done some things that still made him blush. Ami would probably die of embarrassment if she knew. It at least meant that he found her really attractive, although he still was somewhat unsure about his feelings for her.

He actually regretted a little that he'd felt unable to go with her to that meeting, but he'd see her later. Her presence made him feel strangely good and he wondered if that was because he liked her.

_Some months ago I would've laughed at the idea of being so occupied with thinking about a girl,_ he thought, while continuing beating on the pole.

Being busy, he didn't notice a sports car stopping on the road at the other side of the fence. He however did notice when a young man with long, brown hair jumped over the fence without any problem. That alone told Ranma, that this guy had to have so power under his belt, as such jumps weren't the easiest, especially without any effort.

"Yeah, what do you want?" Ranma brusquely asked him, not being in the mood to entertain strangers right now.

The stranger didn't seem fazed by this. "My name is Masato Sanjouin. I heard of a really good martial artist in this area, which obviously seems to be you. I'm very good myself and wondered if we could have a test of skill in a formal match."

Ranma blinked, he hadn't expected such flattery. "I'm really tempted to say yes, especially since my school encourages to accept all challenges. But I have to decline."

Sanjouin looked a bit disappointed. "Can I ask, why that is?"

"Easy, my mother forced my father to accept that there'd be no formal challenges accepted unless both of them agree. And right now she wants me to concentrate more on school than on the art," Ranma told him with a bit of disappointment, while removing the string that held his pigtail together.

"Well, that is too bad," Sanjouin said while watching Ranma undo his pigtail. "I had looked forward to it, but I can't have everything." He made a slight movement with his hand.

"Damn it!" Ranma cursed, when losing the string. It seemed to have slipped out of his hand.

"Allow me..." Sanjouin picked up the string from the ground and for a slight moment Ranma thought that he'd felt something happening, but that surely must've been his imagination. "Here..." he gave the string back to Ranma.

"Uhm, thanks." Ranma took the string and quickly tied his hair into a ponytail, wondering if he should wear it like that more often, as the pigtail started to become a hassle. Blinking, he felt a little bit strange but thought it to be a remnant of his anger. "Excuse me, please, I have to continue to practice."

"Of course. Have a nice day."

Leaving, he waited until he was in his car, before showing a smirk. Nephrite was pleased with how well it had went. The Youma-core of Leo that he'd infused into the string would quickly dominate his thoughts and enter his body. Then Ranma Saotome would only be there for his art to produce as much energy as possible until the peak was reached; and then, all of it would belong to the Dark Kingdom.

_That's an enemy against which all your fighting ability won't help you, _he mocked while starting the engine and driving away.

In the garden, Ranma felt suddenly a rush while doing his exercises. It felt like the spark he'd lost when the art didn't fulfill him any longer. it was very tempting to follow that spark and take hold of it. He had no idea that he was walking into a trap like the fly to the honey. There was no resistance as he didn't even know that he was in danger.

Right at that moment, he'd already lost the battle and a faint glimmer took hold in his eyes.

A glimmer of evil.

* * *

_...at night..._

_**"Raaaaaannnnmaaaaa!" "Raaaaaannnnmaaaaa!"**_

_Running through the misty plane, he desperately tried to escape this voice that was calling and mocking him. He didn't want to be anywhere near this voice. Stumbling, he fell to his knees. To his horror, the voice now was much more clearer than before, as if closing in on him._

_**"Ranma... Ranma Saotome!"**_

_"No, keep away! Leave me alone!" he called in terror, while getting up and again starting to try and run away from the source of this voice._

_**"Ha ha ha... Where are you going, Ranma? You can't get away from me," **__the voice mocked him. Ranma then stopped dead when he saw the shadowed figure standing in his way. __**"See what I mean?"**_

_"No, stay away! I want no part of you!" Ranma felt like his feet were glued to the ground and he couldn't run any longer._

_The figure's yellow eyes started to glow and it let out the one sound that Ranma feared above all, shaking him to the core. "No, stop it! Stop it, I said!"_

_The figure made the sound again, laughing when seeing Ranma's panic. __**"It's time, Ranma. Yes... It's time."**_

_..._

"Noooo! Ahhh!"

Ranma needed a little before realising that he was sitting in his bed, wet with sweat. However, within seconds of waking up his eyes clouded over and his thoughts entered a vicious circle that was fired up by Nephrite's magic. The dream had only proven to him that he had to get better. He had to get better at any cost to be strong enough! And to do that, he could no longer bother with anything else until he would be the best of the world.

Like a robot, devoid of his normal grace, he dressed and then went down the stairs into the garden. He had to get better fast and no one would stop him at reaching this goal... No one. He already wondered if he would even need anyone anymore.

After all, the best wouldn't need anyone.

Right at this moment, the real Ranma no longer was in control of his actions, being forced to watch as a twisted caricature of him took over control of his body and became obsessed with becoming the best there is, regardless what the cost would be, even if he would have to go over dead bodies to achive this goal.

The real Ranma's only thought was hope that this... thing wouldn't hurt Ami.

* * *

_...the next day, school..._

School was nearly over and Ami worried about Ranma.

Yesterday, Ranma already had been a little distant and had had huge trouble concentrating on his homework while always was thinking about more efficient ways to hone his skills. However, today had been much worse. Ranma had been training like mad when she'd arrived at his home and his mother literally had to use her authority to get him to eat and then go to school.

It had continued throughout the day. From what the other girls had told her, Ranma could barely sit still or was so bored, that he almost fell asleep. That was completely unlike the Ranma she knew, who wanted to improve in school so that he could get a degree to teach the art to others. The Ranma of this day was almost a caricature of an obsessed martial artist who had no other interests outside of fighting.

To make things worse, he had talked neither to her nor his friends the entire day.

She didn't want to admit it, but this actually hurt her a lot more than she'd first thought. Ranma treating her this cold... It wasn't like him. It almost felt like a complete stranger had replaced Ranma; a stranger obsessed with training, as some students said they'd witnessed him doing so on the roof during lunch break. It didn't make sense at all why Ranma had changed so much from one day to the other.

As soon as the bell rang, Ami quickly stuffed her things into her book bag and ran to his homeroom in the hope of intercepting him. She did so, but he just walked past her, as if not even seeing her at all, giving her not a single look. It was, as if she didn't even exist to him any longer or was beneath his notice. That was too much for her, she had to try and ask.

"Ranma!" she said, holding him by the shoulder.

He turned around and she gasped when his eyes looked at her as if seeing an annoyance, they were so cold. "What is it? I've missed enough of my training as it is. Stupid school."

"Ranma...? What's wrong with you?" Ami didn't trust her voice to not crack.

"Wrong? Absolutely nothing is wrong with me. I just realised how much all of this stuff is holding me back from becoming the best martial artist there is. So don't bother me while I'm training. I have no need for someone like you anymore."

Shaking, Ami watched Ranma leave and she couldn't hold back tears. "Ranma... what happened to you?"

"How could he treat you like that?" Akane complained, having watched the entire scene from the classroom door. "Yesterday he was alright, and today he acts like a complete asshole and treats you like dirt."

"I have no idea... All of a sudden he acts like a mockery of himself," Ami got out, trying hard not to sob. She really didn't want to believe that he'd changed so much to the worse all of a sudden. That Ranma treated her like this had hurt her deeper than she'd have thought possible.

"I think there is more to it than it first seems to."

Looking down, they saw that Artemis had joined them. They quickly retreated into the now empty classroom, so they wouldn't get disturbed, before Usagi asked "Artemis? Where did you come from?"

"From the moon." He gave he a look of pity. "Of course I came in through the door. I wanted to talk with you girls after school, but while I was around, I noticed how strange your friend is acting. I fear it is more than just him being nasty," Artemis explained. He wouldn't tell them he noticed this by chance and in reality had waited for Minako, who of course right now was starting detention and would be there for some time.

"Can't you be more precise?" Naru complained, wondering if talking animals had a license to avoid speaking clearly.

Artemis knew he should better get to the point. "There were two things... When he passed me today, he didn't even seem to notice me, instead of having a panic attack. The second is more disturbing. I saw him getting hit with water and he didn't change."

"You mean that this isn't Ranma?" Usagi asked, wondering if he had been replaced by a doppelgänger.

"No, of course he's the real one, he was not replaced by a Youma. However, to suppress the transformation, there has to be strong magic at work. Girls, I fear the Dark Kingdom has done something horrible to him."

Ami looked at the mooncat in horror. "I don't believe that! There has to be another explanation!"

"Ami, do you want Ranma to have become this cold to you on his own?" Naru honestly asked the girl and when seeing her eyes widen in understanding, added "At least you know it wasn't really him who did this."

Akane looked to Artemis after having listened to all of this. "If you are right... how can he be returned to normal? He might sometimes be a jerk, but I don't want his life to get ruined by this." She honestly meant it, Ranma had gained some respect from her; not easy considering her general opinion of the male gender.

Artemis sighed. "That's what I don't know. However, we first need to know what actually is wrong with him." He looked to Ami. "If you want to help your friend, your Mercury Computer is a powerful diagnosis tool. Should you get close enough, you can find out what's wrong with him."

Pulling it out of her subspace pocket, Ami first looked at the small computer and then to Artemis with anger in her eyes that was very untypical for her. "Then why did you waste our time? Couldn't you've said this at the beginning?"

Artemis knew that her anger was born out of worry, so he didn't take offense at it. "If you just run after him, you could make it worse. Get the others first and have them as backup when you confront him. This reminds me of something..."

"I know what this means, you want me to keep away in case it gets nasty," Akane flatly said. "It's really frustrating that I can't help you."

They didn't have an answer to that. They all knew that the girl was frustrated by her inability to be of help in the battles and that she felt pretty much useless. However, they also had no idea how to change that. After all, you couldn't just suddenly make someone ultra-competent or give them magical powers out from nowhere. Yet they still felt bad for leaving her behind as they could see her disappointment.

Maybe in the future she'd hopefully find her own place in all of this.

* * *

_...afternoon at the Saotome home..._

"Genma, you have to do something! He's totally obsessed and doesn't listen to me any longer," Nodoka told Genma, while watching her son in worry.

"I already tried that, remember? He gave me a look that promised outright murder and you know he knows at least 30 ways of killing someone instantly," Genma replied, while also watching what happened with uncharacteristic worry.

Ranma already had been obsessed with training at the morning and they suspected that he hadn't slept at all. He also had been particularly stubborn and unbearable. But now was much, much worse. Ranma was training like a madman and the pole started to splinter under his relentless assault. Ami was nowhere in sight and when Nodoka had tried to get him to talk, he'd hissed at her to leave him alone or face the consequences. She hadn't recognised her son, it was as if he was posessed by an evil spirit.

"He... he actually frightens me. His aura is completely chaotic and even getting close to him could be dangerous." He had never before seen anything like this -which meant a lot since he'd seen Ranma in various states of anger over the years- and it scared him.

Nodoka herself had to admit that she was scared as well, seeing how Ranma's features became more and more enraged with each hit breaking apart the pole. His face by now was a mask of rage, as if he was completely losing control of himself. She felt so helpless seeing him spiral downwards, without knowing what had caused this or any way she could stop this. She felt like she had failed him.

Right then she noticed someone walking around the house. "Ami, come here and don't get anywhere near him!" she called to the girl. "Ranma is not himself and I still have no idea what has caused this."

Ami was taken aback when seeing Ranma's strikes starting to splinter the top of the pole, Ranma himself was wet with sweat and his face had become a mask of anger. For the moment she forgot scanning Ranma with the computer and that the others were waiting on the other side of the fence. For the moment she could only see the mockery that Ranma had been turned into.

"Great goodness! Ranma..." she gasped in disbelief.

"Ami, he has become like a wild animal and doesn't listen any longer. What- what have I done wrong that he acts like this?" Nodoka asked her with a weak voice, a tear escaping her.

**-Craaack-** The sound of splintering wood filled the air and they saw that Ranma had managed to break the top half off the pole, leaving the bottom half to point out of the ground. Ranma was quaking, breathing heavy while turning towards them, his eyes radiating danger. He took one step towards them, then another and the next, all while looking at them in the most dangerous way.

"Boy, don't dare to touch them," Genma said under no terms, stepping in front of the females. He was himself surprised that he found the courage, as went totally against how he'd lived for ten years.

"You will be next." **-Wham-** He'd coldly said this before a punch sent Genma against the house wall, where he sat dazed and touched his face, discovering that he was bleeding.

"Ranma, what has gotten into you?" Ami gasped when seeing how he'd treated his father, which was nothing like the controlled spars they normally did which never drew blood. This was just brutal in a primal way.

"You won't stand in my way, I'll... Arrrgghh!" A lance a pain shot through his head. "I'll get you out of the way and... No, I would never do that!... You are just holding me back... I have to get away..."

It sounded like Ranma was arguing with himself, two sides inside him trying to get the upper hand. Then suddenly Ranma howled in pain and they gasped when a blood-red rune flared up on his forehead while he started to foam around the mouth, causing both females to hold each other at this terrifying sight.

"Arrgh... Raaaahhhhrgh!" His cries of pain sounded more of that of a wild beast.

o

Looking at the starfield in front of him, Nephrite knew that the Saotome boy now had reached his maximum level of energy and it was time to haul in the harvest. With a smirk of triumph, he faced the stars.

"He has reached his maximum level of energy. Youma Leo, awaken and secure it!" he called.

However, things wouldn't go as planned.

"What? What is this?" Nephrite suddenly felt that things weren't going according to plan. It felt like something was wrapping itself around Youma Leo and was consuming it whole, while absorbing its abilities. Since something like that had never been planned, Nephrite had no idea what to do and the feedback created by this put enormous strains onto the magical connections he'd built. Everything was about to get nasty.

"Damnit! No, no, no!" Nephrite cursed, before the added feedback caused his starfield to blow up and he tried to flee while debris and remains of the mechanism rained down around him. And while he ran away from the destruction, one question replayed itself again and again in his mind.

What could have caused this to happen?

o

"RAAAAHHHHHRRRGHHH!"

That was a fear-inspiring cry of pain, while black lightning danced around Ranma and he got obscured by it. No one noticed the Senshi jumping over the fence, alerted by the cry, especially since they stopped at once at the sight that greeted them. They saw a shadow of Ranma and then... a second, much bigger shadow emerged from him and everyone was thankful that they couldn't see what exactly was going on, as it looked like it was pouring out of Ranma from known and lesser known orifices, which they imagined to be very painful. The second shadow looked like a sort of beast standing on its hind legs.

"HA HA HA HA! Free! Finally free!"

A body dropped out of the zone of darkness to the ground and they gasped when they saw it was Ranma. He was deathly pale, almost all color gone from his skin, and he looked like he was only skin and bones, as if a vampire had sucked all strength out of him. And his hair... His hair was as white as snow as if to show how all vitality was gone from him. His mother wanted to pull him away from whatever that thing was, but she got no chance when the darkness vanished and they saw what stood there in the middle of the garden.

It... it was a monster. It looked like an over two meters tall, dark-furred battle cat standing on its hind legs. It had dangerous looking, sharp teeth, long claws made of some sort of energy on its hands and its eyes glowed a sickly yellow. It looked very evil. Even more disturbing was, that behind these eyes was reason and cold calculation.

"Finally, after all these years..." The voice was clearly male. Something blasted against his back. "Hm?" Only now did he even notice the Senshi and he'd pretty much ignored the fireball that Mars had pelted him with. "The peanut gallery. Do not bother me!"

The monster slammed its hands together and a shockwave swept the Senshi off their feet and smashed them into the fence, which partially collapsed, causing in return panic on the streets when what had been behind the fence became visible. People ran screaming away and undoubtfully this would cause some unwanted attention from the authorities.

The monster didn't care and instead turned its attention to Genma. "You are the person I have to thank the most."

Genma finally made the connection when looking closer at the energy claws. "You... you are the Neko-ken? How is that possible?"

The monster gave him an evil smile. "Very good. I'm Neko and I really have to thank you for your greed which caused me to come into being. In a way you are my father as well," Neko told him smugly.

"B-but the Neko-ken is only a technique to access the power in a person," Genma stammered, trying to come to grips with how it could stand there as a real being.

Neko laughed. "You are a fool if you think that. I'll tell you what you really did when you threw a child of mere six years into a pit of starving cats again and again. It is not a technique, there is nothing to learn. It was created to instill a deathly fear of cats into the subjects so that cat-demons could take possession of them. You opened the gate for me, and I have to thank you for this."

"I... I did nothing but torturing him?" For years he'd at least fled into the idea that the cruelty Ranma had to endure when learning the Neko-ken at least did have a point. To learn now that it had been senseless torture was a hard blow.

"Looks exactly like it," Neko told him with a sadistic grin, before looking down at the shivering Ranma with distaste, who in return looked at him in fear. "Too bad that this weakling had too big of a heart and I was never able to fully control him with his good side always interfering. But now that someone else has provided me with the means, I finally live again."

"What have I done...?" Genma whispered.

Even though his wife had told him outright that this had been cruel and heartless, a part of him had stubbornly insisted on that Ranma did benefit from the Neko-ken training. It was the corruption speaking, the mental scars left behind from his own apprentice days. But now he was confronted with the undeniable truth of what he had done.

He had done an unspeakable wrong to his son.

"I have created a monster..." The realization that all this was his fault alone was a really bleak one for Genma.

"Well, flattery won't help you. When I leave, I'll take this little weakling with me. But first I want consolation for ten wasted years. A little bloodbath should do fine," he told the terrified humans, drooling at the prospect of the coming carnage.

"You won't touch them!"

The Senshi had gotten over their dizziness and this time Tuxedo Mask had joined them. They now looked downright determined to destroy Neko at all cost. However, Neko didn't seem too concerned and actually laughed at their faces.

"This again? All right, you get some free shots before I kill you all. Just blast away!" he mocked them.

They did exactly that, but their blasts were absorbed and he laughed. He caught one of the exploding roses and simply ate it. When Ceres tried to hit him with her sickle, he first slapped her so hard she turned around, before a kick into her butt sent her away. All this happened while Ami felt unable to transform and help, since it would blow her cover. But that didn't last for long.

_What am I doing? Standing here while my friends get hurt. No..._ She knew Pluto would be angry over her giving away her secret so easily, but right now she didn't care as she couldn't stand the thought that her apathy could cause her to lose Ranma.

"Ami, what is this?" Nodoka asked taken aback when out of nowhere a small wand appeared in Ami's hand.

"Please understand..." Ami pleaded, before looking to Neko with determination, who still played with the Senshi. "Mercury Power, make up!"

Nodoka was puzzled for a moment, before watching how in a flash of light, Ami's clothes vanished and after a short delay, water flowed from her wand, hugging her and forming... She looked at her and then to the other girls that were trying to hurt Neko. It looked a lot like that Sailor V girl that from time to time appeared in the newspaper. Had she not been so scared, she'd have been disturbed that Ami would dress like this.

"Ami?" she wondered if that still was Saeko's daughter, but once seeing her eyes, at least this worry was gone. This still was Ami.

"It's still me. Please, don't stop me from helping Ranma." She then turned back to Neko and had a different strategy, feeling what little mastery of her magic she had could be put to good use.

Meanwhile Neko felt like yawning. All of their attacks were useless against him, as they had not the slightest idea of what was protecting him. They would never realise what the key to his invulnerability was. Another minute, then he'd turn them into corpses and leave. He felt that this wasn't overconfidence but simply stating the facts. That the fool had used the manual to its ultimate end was lucky for Neko, as it hadn't been done in many years as all subjects had went insane and died too quickly.

"That's all?" he asked arrogantly with a yawn. "Well, then fun is over and I-aaahhh!" Whatever he wanted to say got cut short when the ground beneath his feet sudden went cold and slippery and he fell. The next hit shoved him forcibly away from the host.

Neko felt like cursing. He hadn't watched his back and another of them had shown up. And while he was invulnerable, that didn't include being proofed against slipping on ice. "Enough!" he bared his claws. "I'll make steaks out of you!"

From the ground Ranma helplessly watched what happened next.

He'd never before felt this weak and he knew he would be lucky if he could slowly walk away. Added to this was the fear at seeing Neko, although it was far from the blind panic that he normally felt when seeing a cat. It was the fear of the memory of this fear to kept him paralysed. Paralysed, while everyone around him tried to hurt Neko, but still without any success. It was as if nothing could hurt him.

It was a wonder that no one yet had to suffer a fatal injury, but what Neko's claws caused already was bad enough. The Senshi looked as if having gone through a war, their uniforms badly torn and countless bleeding gashes criss-crossing over their bodies. He knew that as long as it wasn't too bad, their magic would slowly heal them, but that didn't make it easier to watch. Their male comerade didn't fare much better. Tuxedo Mask by now looked more like a bum with his suit badly torn apart, but at least his healing powers prevented him from losing too much blood.

It was a surprise to see his old man actually joining them, hitting Neko with blows that should have crippled the monster. Too bad it didn't work and the top of Genma's gi already was shreddered and he bled from numerous wounds. They wouldn't last for much longer. And he just laid there, paralysed with fear of the memories that came up when seeing Neko.

"Iiiaaagghh!"

He knew that voice and what he saw conjured an even bigger fear. Ami, who up to now had kept away to find a weakness in Neko's defense with her computer, had been hit by a claw swipe and held the shreddered midsection of her uniform, blood flowing from the stomach wound the claws had caused. Another fear shoved his fear of Neko aside; the fear that he could lose her. The mere idea that something bad could happen to her made Ranma feel like dying on the inside. He couldn't explain his emotions, couldn't name what he felt.

And he felt shame. Here was Ami, trying to save him, and he lust laid there, doing nothing. Even though he was weak, he still felt pathetic. Watching his mother pulling Ami back from the battle showed that even she did something, despite having no way to otherwise help.

**-Ziiiuumm-** "AHHH!"

That scream had come from Neko. For whatever reason, the Sailor V girl had decided to show up as well and her energy attack had zapped Neko directly into the eyes. The huge cat-demon didn't seem to be hurt, but the intense light had blinded him and he was blindly slashing around his claws, waiting until he could see again.

His fear for Ami now overrode his fear of Neko.

Neko still had dancing dots in his vision, but he was more pissed than ever, all his arrogance replaced by anger. "You little bitches, you are dead!" He saw the newcomer fire again and he moved up his arm to block it. However... **-splonshhh-** "Ahhhrgggh! What the...?" The blast had hit his arm and caused a bleeding wound. Sure, it was already closing up, but the fact alone was alarming.

"How, how?" Frenetically looking around he saw that Ranma was missing from where he had been. Instead the nearly completely drained boy had his back turned to him and was slowly walking away. "No! I won't let you!... I won't!"

The others had no idea what was going on, but seeing Neko going after Ranma and that he suddenly seemed to have become vulnerable, they blasted away with newfound strength. This time the blasts caused gaping, bleeding wounds that despite Neko's healing ability couldn't heal as fast as they caused him new ones.

"No, you can't leave!" Neko tried to to grab Ranma, but his hands went through him, as if he was just a ghost to him.

His eyes widened in terror when he realized what this meant. The weakling was ignoring him, was no longer fearing him and thus cutting the bond between them. Without Ranma's terror, he was vulnerable. Normally taking over the victim's body would plunge them into endless terror. Since he hadn't actually taken over Ranma's body, this was now his weakness!

"Come back!" His hand still didn't manage to get a hold on Ranma. "I... I can't exist without you. You are destroying me!"

"Boy, don't look back! Whatever you do, don't look back!" Genma called when realizing that Ranma losing his fear of Neko had cost the demon his invulnerability.

"You can't do this to me! We had a contract, written in blood!" The relentless blasting from the Senshi was taking its toll and even all the energy he's stolen from Ranma couldn't keep him alive for much longer. "Before I die, at least one you love will do so as well!"

Claws bared, he ran towards Nodoka, intent on gutting her. She couldn't move, struck with terror when the monster ran towards her. But before it reached her, someone else slammed into the monster, shoving it exactly the opposite way. Neko's eyes widened when he saw it was Genma, whose face held a range seldom seen.

"I made you; you are my fault!" He saw the sharp end of the broken pole. "And now I'll make up for it!"

"Noooooaaarrrgggglllll..." Neko's scream became a gurgle when Genma impaled him onto the broken pole, which ran right through the demon, half of it sticking out of the front of his chest. Neko's terror-filled eyes stared at him as if unable to understand what just had happened. Unintelligible sounds escaped his throat while his body started to tremble and inflated like a balloon.

"IT'S GONNA BLOW!"

The Senshi ran for cover behind what was left of the fence, while Genma grabbed his son and ran into the house, where Ami and Nodoka already were, slamming shut the sliding door behind himself. Neko's body had lost its shape and then... **-Blooooooouuuuuummmmmm-** It exploded in a shower of blood and bits of guts. A rain of blood went down around where the demon had blown up.

Carefully opening the sliding doors, they could see the result. The broken pole was charred and from it, the blood radiated outwards, making the garden look as if the setting of a horror movie. Suddenly Ranma gasped and they watched in wonder how with the death of the demon, the stolen power was returned to him. His muscles grew back to normal size, his skin tone returned and his hair returned to its natural black.

"Ranma!" before he could react, Ami was hugging him as if her life depended on it and he could feel her transformation dissolving, returning her to plain Ami.

"Ami..." It felt so right how she was holding him.

"Ranma..." She couldn't stop the tears. They weren't of grief but of relief that he'd been returned to her. "I-I thought this monster would take you away from me... to never see you again. I couldn't bear the thought..." she sobbed.

One of Ranma's weaknesses was crying girls, but in this case he knew that these were good tears. "I felt so weak... I was so scared. But then my fear was so insignificant when it came to you. I didn't want you to get hurt. You mean so much to me..."

Their eyes met, and they exchanged something that couldn't be described with words and they finally understood how much they cared for each other. Ami had fallen in love with the strong and courageous Ranma, and Ranma into the smart and in her way lovely Ami. They were both so different from each other, and maybe that actually was where the attraction came from.

Finally overcoming their reluctance, their lips touched.

Everyone watched these two kissing. Ceres felt confirmed that their had been something special between them, and it had finally ignited, commenting that it was about time. Nodoka watched this with a parental smile of pride. They both deserved this happiness after the darkness they'd just went through. Genma didn't comment but inwards he couldn't help but to be proud that despite his curse, Ranma started to prove to be a real man.

Of course he also felt Nodoka's eyes on him, and this time it was approval. He couldn't read her mind, but it was easy to guess that she was thankful for the rescue and also relieved that he finally had taken responsibility for his errors and had not hesitated to make up for it. It felt... it felt good that he had actually done the right thing.

"I have to say, these two do make a nice couple," Tuxedo Mask commented, while being busy with healing the worst injuries on the girls. He couldn't wait to de-transform and get out of these rags. He then noticed Sailor V landing in their midst. "You arrived rather late. Did something hold you up?"

Sailor V looked embarrassed. "I had detention, OK? I couldn't just leave right away or I would have gotten into trouble."

"Finally someone who understands me," Moon added, before noticing that Artemis had approached the couple. "Oh no, Ranma will have another of his episodes."

Surprisingly, nothing of the sort happened. Ranma and Ami parted, then looked at the white mooncat before Ranma hesitantly used his right hand to scratch Artemis behind the ears, which he found very nice.

"Well, it does make sense," Mars commented. "Neko had possessed Ranma, and the fear of cats was the trigger for him to gain power over Ranma. When Neko left him, he took the phobia with him. Ranma probably will still be a little jumpy around cats, but he surely won't go into panic anymore." She then shook her head. "Do all battles result in such a mess and clothing damage?" she asked, while noting how her uniform only barely held together and she felt almost naked.

"Look, I think we should make our exit," Ceres said, when seeing several policemen in full riot gear approach them.

"Yes, but we should at least tell them something," Sailor V said and approached the officers. "Everything is already done, no need to expect an attack anymore."

They did recognise her from the newspapers, and she'd helped the police multiple times, so they lowered their shields. They then also noticed the others -although they looked as if they went through hell. "What the hell happened here? It looks like a bomb got dropped. Do you actually have your own group by now?"

"They are the same as me and we fight for right. It was a monster, we kicked its butt and we are sorry for the damage. Don't take it personal, but we need to go." That said, she jumped up the the roof of the house, before disappearing after some further jumps. The other Senshi followed her -of course with exception of Ami- only a little slower to prevent further clothing damage.

"Sargent, what are we supposed to tell the Chief?" one of the officers asked, feeling that this would be nightmare of a report to write.

o

"I still wonder what had went wrong..." Nephrite grumbled, while looking over the burnt-out remains of his starfield mechanism. The explosion had pretty much demolished it and he'd need days to build a new one. And the worst thing was, he had no idea what could have caused it. He had looked at it from all angles, but hadn't found an answer as to what he'd done wrong.

"Well, there is always a next time," he decided, dropping the remains of one of the projector globes.

"Yes, but how many next times will you have, before Queen Beryl loses patience with you?"

"Hm?" Looking up, he saw Zoisite floating there, looking smug. "Zoisite, what are you doing here? Don't tell me you do spying work for this idiot Jadeite."

The tomboyish woman gave off a short laugh. "Oh Nephrite, still caught up in your rivalry with him? And of course I don't, he has his own ways to learn about these things. I'm only here to watch you fail again and again, like you did with Jadeite."

Nephrite snorted, this little backstabber was annoying. "This is just a small setback, there are more than enough people out there whose energy can be stolen."

"You are very sure of yourself. I'll enjoy your next failure and the final punishment," Zoisite told him with a smile that wasn't meant to be nice.

"If you are done, move your flat-chested butt out of here. I have work to do," Nephrite said and turned away, in order to see where to start with the repairs.

Zoisite's eyes narrowed. No one was allowed to make fun over the fact that she wasn't gifted with big breasts and had to endure countless mocking in the past. If there was a way to get onto her bad side, it was this. Before, she just wanted Nephrite to fail. Now she wanted him to fail hard and get humiliated as worst as possible.

"Have it your way," she snorted, before vanishing in a gust of rose petals.

* * *

_...some days later, Setsuna's office..._

This Friday saw Setsuna feeling that sometimes she didn't get paid enough for this job.

The week already had been hard enough with all the explanations to two more civilians -and forcing the Senshi to swear that this would be the last for the near future. That Ami and Ranma had taken the next step in their relationship was actually good news, as both of them deserved some happiness.

Yesterday she'd finally finished Makoto's transfer papers. The girl had been in an incident which had caused her to get expelled from school -an incident that wasn't even her fault but everyone was eager to move responsibility to her. She'd pulled some strings to arrange that the girl would be transferred to this school -no big feat as other schools didn't want her- and she'd start by Monday. However, that was when she got the other file for another transfer student.

Right from the start she'd seen the inconsistencies, so she'd started to do some digging. After finding out the truth and calling the right people to iron out this mess, she'd called the future student in question to meet with her; a meeting, that was happening right now.

"Alright, Ms. Kuonji. I have no idea how you manipulated your records, and be glad I don't care or right now you'd have trouble with the justice system. I took the freedom to get all entries about your gender corrected and made sure you won't get into trouble for attending an all-boys school," she told the girl in a hard voice to make clear that she wasn't amused.

Said Ms. Kuonji, a teenage girl with long, brown hair, wearing the boys' uniform of her previous school, squirmed uncomfortably under the woman's eyes. "Does it mean my transfer is denied?"

Setsuna's smile was almost creepy. "No. You seemed to really want to get into this school for some reason, coming all the way from Osaka, and after this experience I want to keep an eye on you, in case you are a troublemaker."

"I..." she wanted to thank her, but stopped when seeing the look the woman gave her.

"Don't thank me, since after all I'll make sure you'll abide to the school rules. That means that first you'll wear the standard girl uniform with all that comes with it. Second, no selling of okonomiyaki during the lunch breaks on school grounds. Third and last, don't dare to carry that huge spatula around during school hours."

The girl grimaced, since these were harsh rules for her. She doubted that she'd get used to wearing the girl uniform after all this time. The second wasn't so hard, as she didn't have a portable grill anyway. However, the third was difficult as she hated to not carry her trusty battle spatula around. Yet that was a small price for finally getting close to the one who had ruined her life. That was worth it and she'd still have enough time to settle into her restaurant, before school would start at Monday.

"You should sell used cars. You are very convincing," she finally said and after some more organisatorial things, she took her leave.

Setsuna trusted her feeling that this girl wouldn't been trouble; at least not too much. She had no idea why she was so eager to come here, but this surely would explain itself in some days. She had more important things to do than to babysit students that were confused about their gender-identity (and she didn't mean Ranma with that).

She closed the folder so that she could finally call it a day. On the folder was the name of the new student: Ukyo Kuonji.

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"The Cooking Contest"**_

**Notes:**

**You probably noticed that I didn't make any fun of the whole Neko-ken issue. That's because it is actually so horrible, I could only treat it with dead seriousness, since it really is no laughing matter and more made for drama.**

**If you noticed that this one was shorter than the two previous ones, that's intentional. The previous two totally grew to huge size and I want to turn the chapters back to a more managable size.**

* * *

I got the idea to include a list of avoided clichès in this kind of crossover, so here it is:

**-Ranma as a Senshi:** THE most often used clichè. People always expect this to happen when a Ranma/SM crossover appears, as authors seem to have a fixation on getting Ranma into a fuku and have no qualms to either kill a canon Senshi or to invent a new one. Point of this story is therefore to keep as far away from this plot idea as possible.

**-Ranma related to a Senshi:** Almost as enduring as the clichè above, Ranma often is related to one of the Senshi (most often Ami, Rei or Usagi), or the re-incarnation of a sibling (most often to Mamoru). Point of this story is, to avoid this and keep Ranma as his own person.

**-Ranma the super-powerful:** More often than not, Ranma practically is almost a half-god that outshines the Senshi power-wise. Since this makes many stories utterly pointless and boring, Ranma is here brought down to Earth (as many of the people are).

**-The super-draining Youma:** In many stories the Youma do seem to have the never in canon seen ability to drain life energy on touch. This probably is confusion with the Cardians of Ail and An, who could do that. Apart from special cases, Youma here can't drain just by touch.

**-Senshi-training by Ranma: **Often seen, Ranma training the Senshi in the art to become better fighters. I explained in the previous chapters how ridiculous that is, since Ranma isn't allowed to teach, nor does he yet have to skills to teach others (which is different from mastering the art). There will be more about that later.

**-Crazy Pluto: **One of the most enduring plots in crossovers (and pure SM stories) is, that Pluto goes to ridiculous lengths to protect the timeline she desires, even going over dead bodies in some stories. It actually is a main aspect of this story to show how this has spectecularly blown up in her face and she becomes a better person at the end who won't do such things anymore.

**-Airhead Minako: **This actually is more of a Sailor Moon clichè, but it also is often seen in crossovers. Minako was a little lazy and forgetful in the anime, but she never was as stupid as she became thanks to the English dub. It's so annyoing that I on purpose made Minako show she isn't an idiot.

**-Engaged to a Senshi:** Often used plot-device that Genma engaged Ranma to one of the Senshi. Avoided here that he didn't do it and all engagements are void anyway.

**-Ranma arguing with the Senshi: **A number of stories just let Ranma become nasty to the Senshi or even outright hostile, most often with very thin justification. The common targets are Mars and Uranus. Obviouslythis is not the case here.

**-Senshi wondering if Ranma is an enemy:** More often than not after witnessing Ranma in action, the Senshi wonder or outright conclude that he must be an enemy, just because of his power. Avoided here by them meeting Ranma under normal circumstances and learning why he is so powerful.

**-Random monster attacks:** There is a disturbing trend that even without an evil mastermind, there still seem numerous monsters just attacking when they like it. No explanation is given. It is unknown how this developed, but in this story, monsters really only attack under command.


	11. The Cooking Contest

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

The Senshi get a new member and Ranma a not-so nice reminder from the past.

**Wow, this chapter got finished real late. That's because I tried to introduce both, Ukyo and Makoto, and that didn't work well, so Makoto's real story is only hinted here and will only unfold in the next chapter. Sorry if things sometimes look a little hastened, but I almost despaired at this chapter.**

**Note that specific notes are at the end of the chapter, to avoid spoilers.**

* * *

**Chapter 10: The Cooking Contest**

"Thanks again that we can stay here for the day. Ever since the demon attack, Mom's on the warpath. First the police, then all these nosy reporters and now she's thrown herself into restoring the garden, which has been turned into a complete mess when the demon blew up," Ranma said, while he and Ami sat in the living room of the Hino house next to the shrine.

"I think you've read what they've written about us," Ami added. "Some of it was really wild guessing."

"Trust me, children, I did read it. Don't be disheartened by what some of these hyenas write. I know that you are doing the right thing," Grandpa Hino told them, while serving them tea.

"I understand that you are annoyed with the press, especially after this clown from that sleazy tabloid calling us 'Damsels in Rags' just because our uniforms got ruined in the last fight. Yet... Ranma, aren't you a little overdoing it with your mother being on the warpath?" Rei asked them after listening to them in silence for most of the time.

Ranma and Ami looked at each other, some silent communication going on between them, before Ranma answered. "Let me put it this way: right before we fled the house today, Mom was ranting about how she'd finally managed to get all the blood removed from the garden and that she can't decide which flowers to plant, thinking aloud if she could draft us into helping the whole day. Pop did the wise thing and left right at the morning."

"I think most of it is stress. First this demon, then the press making a big story out of it and finally learning that most of her son's friends can throw around magic. It's no wonder she uses her garden to vent all of it," Ami analysed, before taking a sip of her tea.

_At least she took it better than someone else in her position would have, _she silently added.

True, it had been stressful. Pluto had given them an annoyed look, before giving Ranma's parents the lay of the land. They took it well enough, apart from Nodoka and Pluto making Genma swear an oath on his honor to make sure he would not reveal a thing. Nodoka even seemed actually happy that her son's girlfriend had magical powers, saying that they really were made for each other. That was another reason they'd fled the house.

"Ah... well, I can understand that," Rei finally said, wondering how she would have reacted to this.

"But speaking of other things, I was right from the start when guessing that she's your girlfriend, you only needed some time to realise this," Grandpa Hino happily said.

Both teenagers rolled their eyes. That was the other reason they weren't home, as both their mothers found them to be a cute pair and couldn't stop telling them that. Too bad that Grandfather Hino also told them this after learning of the recent events. At least he learned it from them when they came to the temple to get the Neko-ken manual destroyed.

As it turned out, the manual was radiating darkest demonic energy and prolonged contact with it would have bad mental effects. Considering that Genma had carried it around in his backpack for years, this answered some questions. The elder Hino had use a lot of exorcism before casting the manual into the sacred flame, which finally destroyed the demonic energies in it in a spectacular lightshow. Everyone was glad that this thing was gone.

"Well, it took us a life-or-death situation to realise it. However, we don't have any idea what boyfriend and girlfriend actually do in their free time. Our mothers are no big help, as my parents met when my mother admired my father's art and Ranma's parents came together when she observed Genma training. Nothing helpful," Ami finally admitted.

"Don't look at me for advice. Grandfather chased all boys away before we could get to that stage," Rei waved it off when they looked to her, giving her grandfather an annoyed look.

"Because they were all just after getting you into bed," the elder Hino added, before giving Ranma and Ami a knowing smile. "Why don't you do nice things like watching a movie, going ice-skating or enjoying a nice day together? This sure helps a lot of the couples that come here."

Truth to be told, Ranma and Ami were considering just acting around each other like always and let things slowly come to them, as both of them were so socially awkward, that the normal rules of interaction between genders hardly worked for them. They'd made extra sure that none of this would become apparent in school, as the last thing they needed right now were nosy teenagers asking them how far they'd gone already.

That first kiss after the demon attack had been somewhat awkward and was born out of relief that they were both alive and well and they hadn't yet found the nerves to do that again, although they had to admit that it was nice and being close to each other made them feel better. They'd probably do another one once they'd find the right time. Maybe that was the secret behind it?

"Well, if you say so..." Ami hesitantly said. "I can ice-skate, but know little about movies."

"I didn't know you can ice-skate. I can't, as Pop said I should stay away from something that girlish, and I also have no idea of movies as I never had the time for it," Ranma openly admitted, feeling no need to keep this secret.

Suddenly Ami laughed. "Aren't we a strange pair? Two social inepts finding each other." She then got herself back under control. "Sorry."

"No... That's actually it. Before we met, both of us had been rather useless outside of what we can do well," Ranma interrupted her. "We complement each other and I think that's why we feel good when we are together."

_Damn, is it me or did that just sound like something Ami would say?_ Ranma then realised.

"She certainly does have an effect on you, Ranma," Grandpa Hino told him. "Some time ago, you probably wouldn't have been able to make this observation. You are giving her the courage to enjoy life again and she gives you the spark to use your head. A wonderful pair."

"Not again..." Ami whispered when seeing another grown-up saying this, but was saved when someone knocked at the front door.

Gandfather Hino went up to answer the door. "Hello, I..." They heard him stop and when he spoke again, his voice was so frosty that it was a little scary. "It's you, Takashi."

Rei groaned and Ami recognised the name. "Isn't that your father?"

Rei snorted. "Apart from the biological reason he doesn't deserve the title. I bet he's here to guilt-trip me into appearing together with him for the press." That said, she stood up. "Oh no... not this time. I'm so sick of it!"

Ranma and Ami again looked at each other, before deciding to follow Rei to the front door. It was open and they could see Grandfather Hino arguing with a man wearing a black business suit whom they guess to be in his mid-forties. They'd never seen the elder Hino like this; looking as if he was ready to rip the other man in two. There clearly was a deep rift that no longer could be bridged.

"And I say leave! I have no idea what my Risa saw in you, you slimy lizard!" the elder Hino shouted.

"Listen, old man! I don't care what you think. I have business with my daughter and you can't stop me," the man, obviously Takashi Hino, shouted back.

"I'm ashamed that you took our family name. I tolerated you up to now, but after seeing my granddaughter in tears after last time, I won't let you hurt her anymore," Hino the elder accused his son-in-law.

"You can't order me around, old man!" He then noticed Rei appearing. "Ah, Rei, there you are. I have to talk with you."

"Well, I have no wish to talk with you," Rei told him in defiance, crossing her arms. "I won't let you drag me to another farce of the caring family-man. So take your hired gorilla" she pointed at the sunglasses-wearing bodyguard that stood some meters away "and leave as fast as you can."

Her father decided to change tactics and put on a disappointed face. "You act like a stubborn brat. What would your poor mother say about this?" He knew that this should work, as it always did.

However, it accomplished the complete opposite, as after a second, Rei's face started to grow red with anger. "Do not bring my mother into this! You just married her to have a family to show off to the press and were never there for us. She only wised up on you on her deathbed, when you couldn't even bother to be there in her last hours!"

"You are acting like a self-centered brat after all what I gave to you," her father accused her.

"What you gave me?" That seemed to rile up Rei even more. "You almost never graced us with your presence when mother was still alive, and after she died you handed me off to grandfather and felt you won't have to spend even a penny on me! Everything I have comes from him and he's the father you'd never been and ten times more of a man!"

"You dare to take this tone with me?" he asked her in anger.

"Yes, I do! Since you surrendered custody of me to grandfather in your laziness, you can't force me into anything, so get lost!"

**-Slap!-**

She hadn't seen it coming when suddenly her father slapped her hard, making her stumble and almost fall, an angry-red handprint that hurt a lot covering the left side of her face. Everyone looked outraged at what he'd done and Grandfather Hino looked ready commit violence at seeing his granddaughter being treated like this. They stopped however, when Rei recovered from the shock in seconds and struck back in the same manner

**-SLAP!-** For a girl of her size, making a grown man reel back from the force of a slap was incredible. "That seals it. You just died for me!" Rei hissed, ignoring the pain for the moment.

"Fantastic!"

That was a foreign voice and they saw a man standing next to the stairs, holding a camera while having a voice recorder strapped to his wrist. "Who would have guessed that Takashi Hino isn't the caring father he pretends to be? These pictures and the exchange will do great in the Sunday edition!" That said, the reporter made a run for it.

"Damn it! Stop him!" Takashi called to his bodyguard.

The man tried to give chase to the reporter, but Ranma's suddenly outstretched leg made him stumble and fall and when he finally got back up, they only heard a motorcycle race away. "Oooops, silly me!" Ranma said in pretended innocence, while Takashi Hino looked at him as if ready to tear him apart.

"You..." The man needed a moment to find his voice. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?"

"Well... I guess I made sure that by tomorrow everyone knows what kind of guy you really are. My own old man is far from perfect, but even after this short time I know that he's still a decent man compared to you."

It actually surprised Ranma that he defended his father, but it was true. What he'd heard and seen of Takashi Hino was disgusting. Even at his worst and all the cruel training methods included, Genma still had cared at least a little bit for him. That was something that couldn't be said of Rei's father, who obviously had seen family just as a PR-method and had completely ignored wife and child when they weren't needed for his political career.

Takashi looked ready to say something, then stopped, shaking in anger. Suddenly something splotted onto his suit from above. Looking in irritation at the bird guano that had soiled his suit, he looked up, only to see two crows whose kraaking sounded like mocking laughter. Without another word, he and his bodyguard left. No one said anything until they heard his car leave.

"Way to go, my boy! He surely won't be happy," Grandfather Hino then told Ranma with a smirk, before looking to Rei. "And you finally stood up to him. Rei, I must say I'm very proud of you."

Seeing Phobos and Deimos land, Rei couldn't help but smile at her advisors. "That was quite gross. I liked it."

"No problem. He really deserved it for treating you like that." Deimos then added thoughtful "I guess that's what is called fecal humor."

Grandfather Hino smiled, he already liked these two crows. "I think he'll think twice before returning here. Although I should get something cold for Rei's face."

Rei only now, with the adrenaline rush over, felt how much her face hurt from the slap her father had given her. She'd always felt that he was scum, but that he'd actually hit her, that was a new low. Today had been the low point of years of neglect and indifference towards her. Now there was literally nothing left between them and she really hoped that the press would shoot his reputation to kingdom come. Giving her new friends a look of excuse, she followed her grandfather back into the house for an ice pack.

"Did you really mean it that your father is a decent man?" Ami asked Ranma when they were alone in the yard.

"Surprisingly... yes. Compared to this scum, he is. Even after all what he did, a small part of him still cared for me. Rei's old man on the other hand is a plain jerk," Ranma explained, suddenly knowing that he could've had a much worse father than Genma Saotome.

Ami actually understood that. "In a way it makes sense. Despite how abusive he'd been to you, your father at least still treated you like a person. Her father is completely indifferent and just sees her as a tool. I'm so glad my own father is nothing like this."

Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Your father? You mentioned him a few times but I never see him."

Seeing that Ranma seemed to start to think that her parents were divorced, she decided to quickly set things straight. "Before you even think they are divorced; they aren't. You just haven't seen him because he's only home four months in a year."

"How comes?" Ranma wondered.

Ami knew that this would be a longer explanation. "You see, my father is an artist, and as such he's sort of a free spirit and doesn't like a regulated life too much. That caused a serious marital problem between my parents when I was seven years old. I don't remember it, but the only reason they say why they are still happily married is a little girl named Ami asking them why they can't find a solution if they still love each other."

"Wise beyond her years," Ranma commented.

Ami rolled her eyes. Her parents told her that every time they brought this up, and now Ranma was starting with this as well? "They came to an agreement, that my father can live out his artist's life for eight months of a year and the rest of the time he'd be home. It actually worked out surprisingly well and helped all three of us to appreciate each other more."

"And I haven't seen him yet because he's currently away?" Ranma asked.

"Yes. My father arranged it so that he's always is home during summer, winter and spring break and the surrounding time. You should meet him next month. Don't worry, I think he'll like you," Ami explained.

Ami however wasn't entirely sure. She really wanted her father to approve Ranma and she had this little, irrational fear that he could think him to be not worthy of her. She knew that wasn't very likely, but that didn't help to ease her fear. She knew that Ranma didn't care if his own father approved or not, although Genma seemed to, having made a comment in the lines of 'about time' but staying silent about it otherwise.

_Relationships are way more complicated than people think,_ Ami thought.

"Good thing we don't have to care about parents," Phobos commented from they were sitting on the rain drain of the house, having listened to all of it. "Being born from fire has its advantages."

"You are only happy because that means there's no one to stop you from seducing females," Deimos said, not wanting to add any more to her brother's antics.

* * *

_...Monday, at school..._

"Class, we have two new students today," Ms. Haruna announced to the class before the roll call. "Since there won't be any interruptions unlike last time..." she gave Usagi a look that spoke volumes "...let them introduce themselves to you."

The door opened and two girls wearing the girls' uniform of the school walked in.

The first girl didn't look all that remarkable. Not ugly, she did look pretty, but nothing really outstanding. She had long, brown hair with a white hair bow on tow of her head and looked downright uncomfortable wearing the uniform. Yes, she actually looked embarrassed about it, although it wasn't apparent, why. The way the class perverts drooled over her already was a good indicator of things to come. Ranma could see that she was working out regularly and had the strange feeling that he should know her.

The other girl... was tall. Everyone had to look twice; for a Japanese girl of 16, she was really tall, being almost exactly Ranma's hight (at least when he was male). She wore her brown hair in a ponytail and looked like quite a tough cookie. Ranma's schooled eye at once spotted by the way she moved that she was quite strong and that she was doing martial arts -although seemingly more as a free-time venture. She also looked to be a little shy.

"You first," Ms. Haruna said, pointing at the tall girl.

The tall girl stepped forward. "Hello, I'm Makoto Kino. I transferred from the Crossroads High and live on my own. I like to cook and do martial arts in my free time."

Ranma felt confirmed in his suspicion, while Akane was surprised. There weren't many girls doing martial arts. Maybe she should talk with her later? However, what she did notice right afterwards was the whispering and that some of the words exchanged weren't as nice. Thankfully, a warning look from Ms. Haruna silenced them.

The other girl was next.

"Hello, my name is Ukyo Kuonji. I hail from Osaka and run an okonomiyaki restaurant nearby. Come after school if you want an okonomiyaki you'll never forget."

NOW Ranma remembered, when hearing the name. He'd been a kid of six, recovering from the whole Neko-ken fiasco, when they'd met Mr. Kuonji and Ukyo in Osaka. At the time he'd thought Ukyo to be a boy. Man, had he been surprised when finally being told by his mother the true story. Ukyo was a girl and his old man had made a wedding agreement he'd never intended to hold in the first place, just to get and then pawn off the cart. It was this act that had effectively broken the Tendo engagement. Judging by the dark looks that Ukyo shot in his direction when spotting him, it also has made her really ticked off, even after ten years.

Everyone else was oblivious to Ranma's sudden distress.

Several seats away, Usagi was speaking with Naru. "Just look how tall she is and how strong she looks. I wonder how she does it that she yet looks more feminine than most of the other girls?"

Looking to Makoto, Naru had a good idea. "At least for the boys it probably has something to do with her chest size," she said, pointing out how much they filled the shirt of her seifuku. "But look at her face. She surely doesn't look happy to have all this attention."

Usagi saw what Naru meant. "Yes, she looks unhappy. I really wonder, why?"

o

Time during periods seemed to have slowed to a crawl for Ranma. He'd felt Ukyo's angry looks almost literally burning into him more than once, although she hadn't spoken to him even once between periods. As for the other new girl... Makoto Kino had suddenly become very popular with a good part of the male students, while some of the girls were always whispering about her.

Ranma had never been happier to escape the classroom as soon as he heard the lunch bell.

He knew that Ukyo would find him very soon, but he could use the time to at least tell the others why he was acting so strange. And he did exactly that at their usual lunch spot and they all listened to what was up with Ukyo. Needless to say they felt disgusted with how Genma Saotome first sold his son's hand in marriage and then tricked a young Ranma before stealing the cart and leaving the young girl behind. It seemed that Ukyo actually held Ranma responsible for it, despite the fact that blaming him was absurd.

"Your father is a truely disgusting man," Naru finally said. "How could he do such a thing?"

"Travel together with him for ten years, and you know," Ranma told her, while always looking around in case Ukyo showed up. He had no idea how she'd react, but considering the frosty looks she gave him, it couldn't be good.

"Why did your father leave messes behind that you now have to clean up?" Usagi asked, having trouble to imagine such a behavior.

"Because he was too lazy and unthinking to take responsibility. He actually has changed for the better since we've started to live in our house again. You don't want to know how he'd been some months ago."

"Watch out! There she comes!" Akane warned them when seeing the girl approach the group.

Indeed, Ukyo was approaching, and her thoughts were not the nicest. After all these years hiding by never having a steady address, her father's private detective -a man he actually had forgot he was still paying to search for Genma Saotome- had reported that the man and his son had returned home to the Saotome home in Minato ward. Her father actually had lost interest by then, feeling that it was old shame that had to be laid to rest. Ukyo however didn't feel that way.

_He said I'm taking this way too far. HAH! That only shows how weak he really is,_ she silently ranted, while approaching her prey.

Seeing that Ranma had noticed her but didn't look too concerned about her didn't sit well with her. And noticing that he was surrounded by four girls right away gave her the idea that he probably was some kind of playboy who changed girlfriends as often as his undergarments. In her imagination she didn't put him above it; it actually was very possible in her mind. Too bad that the school councilor had not only disarmed her but threatened that violence on school grounds would have dire consequences.

"Finally I've found you..." she growled after stopping in front of him.

Seeing how angry Ukyo was, Ranma decided to not use her nickname from childhood days and carefully gauge how pissed she was. Staying calm hopefully wouldn't make things worse. "Wouldn't have thought I'd see you again, Ukyo."

"Of course you wouldn't after ruining my entire life! Be thankful that I'm not allowed to bash in your head on school grounds," Ukyo hissed at his, feeling insulted at how calm he was. "Do you even have any idea what this did to me?"

Ranma decided that being on eye-level with Ukyo would be better, and got up. "No, I don't know."

Taken aback for a second that Ranma wasn't denying it, she quickly got back on track. "All the girls made fun of me, saying that had to be the worst non-girl that you left me! That went on for years until I couldn't stand it any longer and renounced my femininity! Yeah, that's right! I had to change schools and live as a boy just to finally have my peace, all thanks to you! I'll take it out of your hide as soon as I can!"

"While I have to admit that your life was pretty shitty, don't pin this on me!" Ranma finally said after listening to the rant. "You want to know what really happened? Up until some weeks ago I didn't even know you were a girl or what happened until my Mom forced my old man to confess! We were kids and I honestly thought you were a boy. I didn't know my greedy old man made an engagement between us -I wouldn't have even known what that is- and he intended right from the start to steal the cart to sell it. So if you want someone to vent your frustration on, it's him!"

Ukyo had to take some steps back during Ranma's response, as with each sentence he'd become more passionate, frustration radiating from him. "That's no excuse!" Ukyo shot back.

"Yeah, no excuse. It's the facts! The whole engagement thing was bogus anyway, as there already had been a standing engagement to Akane here and dishonoring it with a second engagement, my old man caused hers, yours and any future engagements to be null and void. The only claim you have is to get my old man to pay reparations for the stolen cart."

Everyone was surprised that Ranma had actually gotten his point across, many realising that he wasn't as stupid as he looked sometimes. Akane also felt uncomfortable at how Ukyo had looked at her as if seeing another factor of her bad fortune when the broken agreement with her family was mentioned.

Ukyo meanwhile felt a little at a loss how to react. Over the years she'd convinced herself that once she'd catch up with Ranma, he'd either deny it or gloat, after which she'd break every single bone in his body. That Ranma had defended himself like this hadn't been in her plans. To make matters worse, he'd made her look like a complete fool in front of everyone, as everyone had listened to their exchange. Ukyo might have followed a stupid revenge plan, but she wasn't Ryoga, who didn't care about his reputation.

"Don't think that gives you a pardon. I'll still pound you to paste and challenge you to a duel after school," Ukyo challenged him, still feeling the need to hit someone.

Ranma was tempted... He was so tempted to accept this challenge, especially since his father had pounded into him to accept challenges as part of his school. But then he saw himself in his mind's eye standing before his mother. She gave him a very disappointed look, showing how she disapproved what he had been about to do and that this challenge was completely pointless and would only cause more trouble. Ranma knew, his mother's looks of disappointment were very persuading.

"No," Ranma simply told Ukyo.

"What do you mean with 'no'?" Ukyo demanded to know, not having expected this.

"No, because this challenge is pointless. It wouldn't solve anything, so I decline," Ranma told her, hoping that the girl would finally drop it. He really didn't want to hurt Ukyo, he actually pitied her how much her anger ruled her.

Ukyo couldn't believe it. He had declined; just like that. "Does it mean you have better things to do, like sitting around with your harem?" she hissed, but that was exactly the wrong thing to say.

Ranma was offended, the girls were offended... but Ami was more offended than anyone else. "I never want to hear this again! If there is one thing you shouldn't do..." having gotten up she kissed a surprised Ranma to underline her point before looking to Ukyo again "...is to ever again accuse my boyfriend of this."

_BOYFRIEND?_ this revelation finally was too much for Ukyo. Feeling that there was nothing to win by continuing this confrontation, she turned and left.

"Ami...?" Ranma was surprised with how aggressive she'd been.

Ami blushed a little. "She made me so angry with this comment that I wanted to shower her the lay of the land." She herself was surprised with angry she'd been at Ukyo's accusation. "I guess you liked it?"

"Umh, yes... I did." Ranma then noticed all students looking at them, making it clear that their relationship was no longer a secret. "What are you looking at? Show's over, so scram!" he called to them and everyone quickly returned to their own business. After all, there was no need to annoy Ranma.

"You know that she won't give up so easy? After all, ten years of pent-up anger aren't forgotten in just a day," Naru reminded Ranma, while watching after the leaving Ukyo. "She'll be a thorn in your side in the future."

Ranma sighed. "Why do such things have to happen to me? Couldn't she just have went on with her life instead of obsessing over getting revenge on me? One Ryoga is bad enough."

"You don't sound very concerned for your childhood friend," Akane observed.

"Don't get me wrong, I do feel sorry for how my old man caused her great shame, but I can barely relate to her. We were six-year old kids, it's been ten years and we'd only stayed with her for some weeks. Apart from some childhood memories, she's almost a complete stranger to me," Ranma admitted.

"This is really bad." Everyone could only agree with Usagi's assertion of the situation.

"Is every day that exciting at this school?"

They hadn't even noticed someone standing behind them. It was the other new girl, Makoto Kino. It looked like she'd witnessed the entire confrontation with Ukyo and now waited for an answer while holding her bento bag in her hands. No one knew how to greet the girl; at least until Usagi in her friendly and a little clumsy way decided to make the first step.

"Oh, hello. You are Makoto, the new girl in our class, right?" she greeted her a little awkwardly.

"Oh, don't worry, I won't bite," Makoto joked, trying to ease the tension. "I hope you're not offended when I sit here for lunch?"

"Of course not, but it is already quite crowded, so why do you want to be here, if I may ask?" Usagi asked further.

Sitting down, Makoto shook her head. "I'm uncomfortable with the other students. Half of the boys stare at my breasts like perverted idiots, while the other half is intimidated by me. Also I can already hear most of the girls whispering not-so-nice things about me. You girls look all right and..."

"And you heard that the only boy in the group already has a girlfriend, thus he probably won't lust after you, right?" Naru added, seeing that she was right when seeing the tall girl blush a little. "Oh, we won't hold that against you."

"Sorry... It's just so difficult for me to fit in. Either me being so tall and strong scares people away, and when I try to act more feminine I get swamped by guys who are only interested in my other... talents." She said the last thing while pointing at her very impressive breasts.

Akane shook her head, she'd heard all this before. "That sounds somewhat similar to what I went through at my school, though not exactly the same. Either the boys called me a tomboy and flat-chested for being a martial artist and having a less than average bust, or they drooled over me and pestered me for dates."

Makoto hadn't expected that, the girl looked ordinary enough, but a closer look showed that she was stronger built than other girls. "How did you solve it?" she asked.

"I decided that they could screw themselves and I did what I want... Sadly that didn't stop one delusional idiot from turning my life to hell, until I snapped... Well, that's why I'm now at this school; to get away from that mess," Akane explained, wondering a little at how easily she opened up to Makoto. Maybe it was because she could relate to her?

"Sounds a lot like... uhm, I actually don't even know what your names are," Makoto suddenly realised.

Everyone looked a little embarrassed and Akane tried to salvage the situation. "The boy is Ranma Saotome, the -as loathe as I am to say- best martial artist in the ward. His girlfriend is Ami Mizuno, the smartest student in this school. The redhaed is Naru Osaka and the blonde is Usagi Tsukino. And finally, I'm Akane Tendo."

Everyone greeted Makoto, who couldn't believe she'd told them so much without even knowing their names. "Thanks... where was I? Ah, yes. I actually got thrown out of three high schools already. I have a dislike of bullies and each time I got thrown out was because I defended someone from said bullies. It's not my fault that these bullies have influential parents who put up a scene and got me expelled."

"You must be really strong to beat them up," Naru observed.

"I am. I even hold a green belt in martial arts and work on getting the blue one in due time, although my teachers tell me that I'm more of a street brawler than a sophisticated fighter." The way she said this, there was no bragging behind it, she just stated the facts.

Akane perked up when hearing this. The girl seemed to be much closer to her level than she was to Ranma's. Maybe she should sometime as her about some sparring once she'd know her better? However, her thought were interrupted when Usagi squealed at seeing what Makoto took out of her bento bag.

"Oooohh, that looks really tasty. Your mother really knows how to cook," Usagi said in awe, but then stopped when seeing the pained expression Makoto gave her.

"Actually... I did that myself. My mother... will never again cook anything."

After a few seconds everyone understood what that meant and suddenly Usagi felt incredibly guilty for being so insensitive. "Sorry...I, I didn't know..."

Makoto gently shook her head. "No, you couldn't have known. Let's just pretend this never happened. I can't help but to think you could be alright. You are the first people in quite some time who act nice around me, so maybe we should get each other a bit better known. Please excuse me that I don't extend an offer of friendship right now, but after some bad experiences, I'm careful."

They understood that, so they would each tell her a bit about themselves and maybe with time, they indeed would get a new friend.

* * *

_...next day, home economics room..._

The girls of the class had gathered in the home economics room to wait for the teacher to enter. Today was one of these days where the normal schdule was not enforced and instead the girls and boys had separate classes. Some of the girls were a little offended that there still was the expectation that they had to learn cooking to be a good housewife, but at least it spared them some other, boring lectures, while the boys were doing outside sports in the meantime.

"Well, here I am, girls," Ms. Haruna announced when she entered, wearing an apron. It had come as a little surprise that the woman actually knew how to cook, but they tried to not say anything. "I've decided that we make something sweet today: muffins."

Most of the girls looked delighted, while Ukyo barely managed to hold back a snort. While she primarily was an okonomiyaki cook, she of course also was skilled in cooking and baking other stuff. This would be boring for her, but she wouldn't complain. She was already walking on thin ice and she had no wish to get into trouble. Also, she still hadn't processed yesterday's events, Ranma's behavior having put her at a loss what she should do next.

Akane on the other hand was enthusiastic, as this was the first chance she had in weeks to cook something. Mrs. Tsukino had told her that she wouldn't have to bother with cooking -although she suspected her attempt at a ham sandwich and the state of the kitchen afterwards had something to do with it. Now she could finally get something done.

"So, girls, no more waiting! Let's get baking!" Ms. Haruna announced.

The girls scrambled to begin with their work. Well, almost all of them. Naru and Makoto were watching Akane's preparations, which looked more like a martial arts session; all very flashy and hectical. They wondered what kind of secrets the girl would have, when hearing a sigh from their side, spotting Ukyo who looked very critical to Akane's preparations.

"She'll screw it up," Ukyo said, not looking to be in a rush to begin her own preparations.

"Why do you think so?" Naru wondered, finding that the girl was rude to say something like this.

"Just look at it," she snorted, pointing at Akane already starting to mix things. "She doesn't even take care what she puts in and some of her choices make me wonder if she's lost her sense of taste."

"Come on, it can't be THAT bad!" Naru defended her friend, her dislike of the girl making her forget that Akane really was putting together things that didn't belong in muffins.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Ukyo smarted, before going to work on her own muffins.

"What a meanie. I mean, Akane can't be that bad, right? She's probably just jealous. I can't wait to taste one once they are done," Naru announced, before getting to work.

Makoto had watched the whole scene in silence and couldn't help but to feel that Ukyo was right. Even though something about the girl rubbed her the wrong way -a LOT the wrong way- she wouldn't test Akane's muffins. After all, seeing what the girl put into them, this couldn't be healthy. However, as the new girl, no one would listen to her, so she wouldn't even try to warn them. Sometimes people would only learn after the damage was done.

_This can't end well... _she thought in resignation, before getting to work herself.

And some time later...

"I came as soon as I heard, the whole school is talking about it," Ami said, while she entered the room. Ranma had decided he could do without Ukyo staring holes of anger into him again -after all he got enough of that during classes- and had stayed away.

"I've never before seen anything like this," Ms. Haruna said in defeat while pointing at the line of whimpering girls who all held their bellies in pain, while others no longer did so, but were pale in the face.

The school nurse was busy with giving girls a strong emetic, while others were already vomiting into buckets and the pale-faced girls looked like they were already done. In the midst of it stood a very embarrassed looking Akane, who looked in shame to a plate of half-eaten muffins. The girl seemed to be ready to sink into the ground in embarrassment.

Ms. Haruna sighed. "It was a mishap with some of the baked goods."

"No... not baked goods," Usagi whined, her face paling with each second. "Baked... bads!" Suddenly she let out a loud belch before grabbing a bucket and throwing up into it.

A pale-looking Naru slowly made her way to Ami. "It was partly our own fault. I saw Akane putting things into the mix that don't belong there, but since Ukyo pointed it out, my pride got the better of me. Urgh... in retrospect it was stupid."

"I'll never be a good cook..." Akane finally said, looking at her mishappened muffins.

"Don't say that." Looking up, she saw Makoto approach her. "It is not that you're incapable of cooking, you're just too impatient and don't put your attention on what you are doing. Here, take one of mine and you'll feel better."

Hesitantly, Akane took to offered muffin and took a bite. "Hmmmmm, that's good... I envy you. I wonder what happened. I tested one and I didn't get sick."

Makoto knew what Akane meant. No one had complained about the taste and the problems only started when the muffin had reached the stomach. "I can guess you have a strong stomach."

"You know, I..." Akane was about to offer her a deal to be her sparring partner in return for cooking lessons -hopefully more successful than Kasumi's attempts- but she didn't get that far.

"Give it up, sugar, you'll never get into the league of us pros," Ukyo told her, having approached. "Even Miss Wondercook can't help you in that regard. After all, even she can't do miracles."

Akane didn't look happy, but Makoto looked downright pissed. She'd learned how to cook from her mother and held the ability close to her heart to remember her. Having this girl insult her ability was something she couldn't tolerate. "What did you just say about my cooking abilities?"

Ukyo hadn't meant to be that snarky, but pent-up frustration had made her lash out at the first target, and now there was no going back. "Oh yes, compared to me, you are probably a complete beginner. After all, I do this as a job."

"That sounds like a challenge!" Makoto growled. Now she really disliked Ukyo after she'd made fun of her cooking.

Not one to back off, Ukyo saw this as a chance to vent some anger. "It is one. Tomorrow during lunch hour! We'll both make something and then see which one is better liked! Winner takes all."

"Oh no, as if there wasn't enough trouble, now there are two bruised egos in a cooking competition," Naru groaned. "And look at poor Akane, she looks like she thinks that she's conjured the apocalypse. This can't end well."

"Sometimes I really wonder what kind of girls I got mixed up with..." Ami mumbled, before saying aloud "What trouble could a cooking competition be? After all, it's not that one of them is bad at cooking."

"Blahrg...It's not that..." a pale Usagi told her, while slowly moving to them. "It'll be a draw and then they continue to act mean towards each other. Life used to be so much more simple some months ago. When did it get so complicated?"

Naru gave Usagi a knowing look. "I think it's called growing up. I still remember the stuff we did when we were 14 and which now seems to be so utterly stupid and embarrassing. Back then, things seemed so much simpler."

Ami couldn't help but to agree with this. Some months ago, her life had been very simple and uninteresting. And now... She now was a magical warrior -although more in a backup role- had Ranma as a boyfriend and made some friends who made her look normal. Yes, life had become more complicated, but that didn't mean it had become worse as well.

o

Nephrite checked the whole mechanism one final time. It had cost him days to rebuild the whole starfield mechanism and he wanted to make sure that nothing would go wrong this time, as he doubted that Queen Beryl would have endless patience and this fool Jadeite was still working on his own project. He couldn't risk another malfunction, still wondering what had went wrong last time, so he'd used the chance to finetune the selection of targets to exclude high-risk people.

Having done the final checks, he started it and the whole room again became a concert of stars and movement lines. Calmly, he looked around for a sign of someone who would soon have an energy maximum that he could harvest after some manipulation. Then, finally, he'd found the sign he'd looked for.

"Ahhh, very interesting. The scales of Libra are being misused to further a selfish agenda..." Concentrating, he let the beam of light hit his forehead, so that he'd gain knowledge of whose fate it was, that had become unbalanced and ripe for harvesting.

Before him, the picture of a schoolgirl with long, brown hair appeared. "Ukyo Kuonji. Her energy will be ours."

* * *

_...later that day, Ukyo's shop..._

Flipping an okonomiyaki on the grill, Ukyo looked over her brand-new, small restaurant. It had been an instant hit with the school crowd and local salarymen. That was a good thing, since it meant it would generate enough income, despite being only open for half the day. It also helped her to distract herself from the recent events.

_It had seemed so easy back then,_ she thought, while serving a customer.

In her mind it really had been easy: find Ranma and beat the snot out of him. She hadn't even thought further than that or what she should do if that didn't work out as intended. She hadn't expected Ranma's reaction, which left her at a loss at what her next actions should be. Simply beating him up wouldn't do it and probably would even get her into serious trouble, since this school councilor had been very clear on that.

Sure, she could still take it out of the hide of Genma Saotome, whom Ranma had said to be really responsible for her misfortune. She hadn't yet decided on if she should do it, as she doubted she could actually succeed in it. Even then, beating up the old man wouldn't give her much satisfaction, which frustrated her to no end. In retrospect it maybe had been an error to leave Osaka in such a haste, but that couldn't be helped now.

_Yeah, I now only sit in a classroom with Ranma every workday from now on, unable to do anything about it,_ she thought in sarcasm.

Life had never been easy after her decision to shun her femininity. Being at a all-boys school had been an adventure on its own, getting more insight on the male gender than a girl of her age should have. Although some of it still made her shudder, especially when the teacher had made her clean the locker room and while some of the boys looked good, others were nightmares with more fat than muscles and hairy asses. That, and this stalker she still was trying to forget, were things she actually didn't miss.

To her horror she'd discovered that by now, she actually got embarrassed in the girls' locker room when changing. She'd taken the whole thing way too far and a small part of her actually was thankful that the school councilor had forced her to wear the girl uniform.

Despite having renounced her femininity years ago, she'd still always thought of herself as a girl. That she'd started to actually get embarrassed at the sight of nude girls had been shocking to her, as she'd always thought she could change her way of life on a whim. That she'd become so used to it was the last straw.

_I'm a girl and will always be!_ she told herself for the upteenth time.

She'd told no one, but she started to fear she could lose her female identity and really become male in her mind, so she'd vowed to no longer hide her gender, although like the locker room, again getting used to live as a girl would be hard on her. At least one benefit already was apparent: wearing a bra was far better than breast bindings. Her breasts no longer hurt from being squeezed flat and she also had an easier time with breathing.

Ukyo looked around. Here she was, all alone in Tokyo, having a vendetta that can't be satisfied. Add to it that she probably just had made another rival. That tall girl just rubbed her the wrong way. Not only did she act all tough and yet feminine at the same time, she also had no trouble with showing what she had, and that disturbed Ukyo a lot. And her cook's honor had been injured earlier today, so there was no bailing out.

Right then she noticed another customer entering her shop. "Hello, how may I serve... you?" Ukyo had paused for a moment since the man who'd entered was really handsome. She quickly shook it off, since she had no time for stuff like this, especially during business hour.

"I couldn't help but to notice that this restaurant is new," the man observed, while walking up to the grill.

"Yes, that's right. We've been open since Monday." Ukyo had no idea what was the matter with herself. It was as if being near the man was making it difficult to think straight. "What can I get for you?"

The order was simple and he did seem to enjoy it a lot. After he was done, he looked back to her. "That was excellent. If I may ask, that is quite an interesting item you are wearing on your back."

Ukyo knew he meant her battle spatula, which she was wearing by force of habit, having felt naked without it during school hours. "That's a family heirloom. It had once belonged to my grandfather," she said, holding it in her hands.

"An unusual weapon, yet it has the same elegance of the weapons of the samurai. A weapon that can be wielded with honor," he sweet-talked while moving a finger over the polished surface. "This is a weapon to be proud of."

Ukyo barely held back a gasp at that moment, when feeling for a moment as if someone had dropped an ice cube between her breasts. Thankfully, it only lasted for a second. "T-Thanks..." she stammered, before putting the weapon back into place and returning to work.

The man left, noticing that the girl already seemed to work much harder than before.

Once outside, Nephrite couldn't help but to think how easy it had been to put the seed into the big spatula. Very soon it would enter her body and the girl would be obsessed with being the best cook ever and would think of anyone doubting that as an heretic. Sometime tomorrow it would be harvesting time and this time he'd make sure that the events of the previous attempt would not repeat themselves.

_Well, that's good and the food was also excellent._ Laughing, he went to his car.

* * *

_...next day at school..._

"What have we done to deserve this?" Ranma wondered aloud, while watching the chaos in the school yard.

Word of the upcoming contest had spread very fast and at least half the school was next to the windows of the home economics room, waiting for the participants to enter and begin. It had all turned into sheer chaos as soon as the lunch bell had chimed. While many just wanted to be the ones to get a taste of what the two girls were cooking, many others obviously hoped it would degenerate into a catfight. After all -and that he'd learned very fast- many boys thought two girls beating up each other was hot.

Ranma himself couldn't care less and he also kept away as he still didn't really want to be too close to Ukyo, although today she'd been strangely quiet and impatient, complaining that classes were taking too long. On the other hand, she'd completely ignored him and he didn't know if that was a good sign, or not.

Looking to his side, he missed Ami.

She was chosen to be the one to watch out that neither Ukyo nor Makoto would try to sabotage the other during the contest, since she had a reputation of being very honest. That was one more reason for him to find the whole thing ridiculous, but Ami had just said 'martial arts challenges' to him when he'd complained and he knew that he had no right to complain. His other friends were also nowhere in sight, so Ranma sat under the usual tree alone, having already inhalated his lunch, and was now waiting for the whole thing to get over with.

"Hi, you don't look very happy."

Looking up, Ranma saw Mamoru standing there. Ranma had no idea of fashion, but he found the green sports jacket Mamoru was wearing quite ugly, although he wouldn't tell him so. "You would be as well, if half of the school was gaga over two girls in a pissing contest over who cooks better," he said, getting up. "Didn't think I'd see you here."

"All lectures were canceled today and I just came by and saw this huge crowd and you sitting there. Thought I should say hello. After all, we didn't get the chance to talk in our previous encounters," Mamoru told him, while scanning the crowd.

Ranma had to admit that this was true and got up. "Well, the girls told me about you. You admit that you're boring, that in my eyes already makes you better than a lot of people who weren't man enough to admit that. What I don't get is your reason why you do this hero stuff besides all the yadda-yadda destiny stuff."

Mamoru tried to not roll his eyes at Ranma's lax way of talking. "Call it clichè, but I do it because I feel that I got these powers for a reason and sitting back while the bad guys take over the world would make me the biggest idiot in the world."

"That's actually not stupid at all. You've your priorities set straight. I like that, reminds me of the oath of the martial artist." Ranma really meant that. He could feel that while Mamoru was mostly boring as hell, he also wasn't one to beat around the bush. Ranma had always disliked people who tried to hide their true intentions behind long-winded explanations.

"Yeah. It's one of my basic rules; I hate people acting all secretive while trying to hide what they really want. The girls also told me a lot about you, and after all the weirdness that already has happened, someone changing gender with water seems downright normal," Mamoru remarked, believing it despite never having seen the change personally.

"Normal, my ass..." Ranma grumbled. He was still not ready to fully accept his curse, although by now he'd accepted that he had to make the best of it. "How would you react to waking up one morning and finding your dick missing?"

Mamoru whinced. Despite the vulgar descripton, it brought the point across. "Ok, now I got it. No offense, but I hope that never happens to me. That embarrassing outfit is already bad enough." He wouldn't say it, but after looking into the mirror as Tuxedo Mask, he actually found that it looked somewhat gay. He really hoped to ditch it when possible.

"Yeah..." It was clear that Ranma didn't want to talk about it any longer. "Before I forget it, I was mostly out but noticed you waving around a cane. What's with that?"

Mamoru groaned. "I'm supposed to wield a sword, but for now the transformation only has enough juice for a cane. I hope to improve to sword soon, but my limited fencing skill from high school won't help me for long."

That roused Ranma's interest. "Ever tried your hand at kendo? Not the formal stuff, but real swordfighting."

"Can't say so, but it couldn't hurt to try. Why do you ask, is there someone you have in mind who could help me in that regard?"

"Maybe..." Ranma knew his mother would be annoyed if he made a promise without asking her first. With some luck, she'd be willing to help.

Aimlessly walking over the school grounds, Ranma and Mamoru talked about various things, trying to get a feel for each other. Both of them were surprised that a man-to-man talk could be this relaxing. Mamoru after all most of the time lived in social isolation and Ranma, despite enjoying the presence of the girls, found that there were things you could only talk about with another man. They started to enjoy it, when they were interrupted.

"Ranma, there you aaahhhhh!" Usagi right then stumbled on a thick root and while Mamoru caught her in time, her soda crashed into Ranma - with predictable results.

"There must be someone laughing his ass off over things like this," Ranma grumbled, taking in her now wet school uniform jacket.

"Well, now I can't pretend that this didn't happen," Mamoru commented. He'd seen the change, which actually was not instantaneous but took about a second. "Doesn't it hurt when your bones and innards are re-arranged?"

"Nope, just tickles a little. Guess whoever made these springs felt it wouldn't be funny if people kill themselves to escape the pain." She was glad that this was the case, although the change in her private area always felt a little weird.

Usagi meanwhile looked a little embarrassed. "Uh...hehe. Sorry... Oh, hi Mamoru. Sorry about that, too." She couldn't help but feel somewhat unsure in his presence. Now that the first anger was gone, she felt that she actually started to enjoy his presence. Yet it felt uncomfortable, since she after all didn't know him that well.

"Oh, no need to apologise, Bunny."

Usagi looked annoyed. "What's it with you and nicknames?"

"Well, I felt 'Meatball Head' is insulting, so I chose this one. After all, your name pretty much means 'rabbit', so I felt it fits," Mamoru explained.

Usagi looked a little insulted and had a feeling that Mamoru didn't take her entirely serious. Well, that couldn't be helped now, so she shook it off. "I don't know why you are here, but come both of you. The competition has already begun and it looks like both of them are going all out."

Ranma wouldn't complain. And she also wouldn't search for warm water, since she knew her luck. She was so occupied with her own thoughts, she didn't even notice that Usagi and Mamoru acted a little strange, as if each other's presence meant something.

At the same time, the cooking duel was in full swing.

_What went into her? Yesterday she gloated how this Akane girl will screw it up when acting like this, and now she does it herself,_ Makoto thought, while trying to concentrate on her own work. _And the way it looks, she doesn't even do any errors._

With all her years of cooking experience, Makoto knew that this was impossible when watching Ukyo throwing together whatever she was making. Not once had she used something that didn't belong into food. And the look in Ukyo's eyes also scared her. Ukyo seemed to take the whole thing literally dead serious and Makoto feared that one wrong move and she'd end with a knife in her back. Ukyo actually scared her a little.

She had little idea that Ukyo by now was possessed with the idea of being the best cook ever, turning her into a maniac that was close to exploding.

Watching from the sidelines, Ami couldn't help but to be scared as well. The way Ukyo was acting reminded her far too much of what had happened to Ranma, but there was nothing she could do at the moment. After all, it would look rather suspicious if she was to produce a hand-held computer out of nowhere to check if there was something wrong with Ukyo. Not a good idea when having a big audience.

"Ha, you are as slow as a slug and you call yourself a good cook," Ukyo gloated, while already putting hers into the oven. "You'll never measure up to me, loser!"

"Who are you calling a loser, you..." Makoto stopped when all of a sudden the over started to shudder and rumble. Ukyo was too far away, but Ami was right next to her. "DOWN!" she shouted, dropping everything and dragging Ami down behind the counter.

Not a second too early, when suddenly the pressure became too much and... **-BOOOOOOOOOOMMM-** The oven blew up; the shockwave shattering all the windows and turning the room into a complete chaos.

Looking up from behind the counter to check what was left of Ukyo, Ami and Makoto got shocked when seeing that she looked completely untouched, staring at the remains of the oven before starting to laugh as if having gone completely mad.

"I think she's lost it..." Makoto gasped, for now not wondering why Ukyo was unhurt.

Ami's eyes however narrowed. "There's something else..."

o

Nephrite looked up when he saw the stars start to glow brighter than normal. He knew what this meant: his next victim was ready to be sucked dry, and this time nothing could stop the Youma from fulfilling its task.

"Energy maximum is reached... Youma Libra! Awaken and fulfill your orders!"

o

"HahahaHAHAHAaaaaarrgg!" Ukyo's mad laughter all of a sudden turned into a scream of pain when red light exploded around her.

It was sick to watch when suddenly something poured out of all her visible and non-visible orifices and judging by her muffled screams, it had to be very painful. Whatever it was, it smashed right through the outer wall and Ukyo collapsed, looking completely drained, her hair white. She looked incredibly frail, as if she could snap in two every second.

Everyone had run away from the outer wall and from a safe distance now watched whatever it was taking form. They'd all expected some sort of hideous monster to form from the back mass, but they were in for a disappointment. It just looked like a woman wearing an okonomiyaki seller's uniform. The

only unusual things about her were her green skin, yellow eyes and the set of scales she was holding in her hands.

The champions of justice knew they had to slip away in order to fight, but the Youma had different plans. "I see a bunch of unbalanced people. All you deserve is a hefty tummy ache!"

At first nothing happened, but then everyone held their bellies and wailed in pain, before collapsing. The Youma Libra watched in glee how everyone was complaining about horrible stomach cramps. Being born from this okonomiyaki cook had given her some interesting powers. Now no one would stop her from leaving.

"You damn..."

Libra got a foot into her side, which hurt. But it still was weak. Looking to her attacker, she saw a red-haired girl who, while still obviously in pain, was forcing herself to stay up. Libra snorted. "How you dare to not stay down!"

Ranma didn't say anything, since she was busy enough with forcing down the pain. It was sheer willpower that made her go on without collapsing to the ground, but it still affected her and her fighting was downright weak and sloppy. She'd nonetheless fight, even if it wouldn't have much of an effect.

It didn't. Seconds later, Libra had kicked her into the gut and held her by the shirt.

"You didn't really think you could hurt me with you being so weak..." However, Libra's scales right then tipped to one side. She knew it meant that there was more to this girl than what was obvious. Interested, she took a smell of Ranma and her face showed intense dislike, before it hardened into a mask of anger.

"Your soul smells. And I thought your kind had vanished from this world. Meet your fate, shadow hunter... OW!"

Before she could do anything to Ranma, something hard hit her in the head, making her let go of Ranma, who scrambled away in order to gather herself for round two. Akane stood in the hole Libra had made in the wall, looking angry.

"What? Why aren't you down?" Libra didn't understand, her spell should have this girl on the ground with horrible stomach pain. Instead, she looked ready to take her apart.

"No idea, but I won't let you get away with this." Akane knew that this sounded incredibly corny but it was the best she could come up with right now.

She then didn't waste a moment and attacked, hoping that her skill was enough, otherwise she'd be dead meat pretty soon. Sure, she could have done nothing, but Ukyo didn't deserve such a horrible death, regardless how she felt about her. After all, the code was clear on that and she didn't want to put shame on herself a second time after the events that had caused her to move into this district.

Libra hadn't expected an actual fight. She wasn't made for this, so regardless how mediocre the skill of this girl was, for her it was difficult to defend herself against it. It was her bad luck that she, one of the weaker Youma, had to run into this girl, who seemed to be immune to her stomach pain spell and who could dish out punishment.

From inside the wrecked room, Makoto Kino was grounding her teeth together while trying to get up.

She was horribly confused what was going on, seeing Ami lying beside her, whimpering in pain. She herself also felt like barfing up her innards and it became even worse when seeing Akane attacking this... thing -whatever it was- despite her actually being able to be on equal footing for the moment. It was the thought what this thing would do to Akane when being fed up with her.

_Have to... get up... _It was no use. Despite using all of her strength, she could only barely move.

All her life she'd tried to be strong in order to go her way. It had come with a price; her now being singled out even more than she'd already been because of her height; something she'd tried to compensate by acting more feminine. And yet, right when she actually needed to be strong, what she'd gathered was not enough to be of any help. It was a slap on her face, as if to spite her that all her sacrifices had been futile.

"Why can't I...be... strong enough?" Right now she'd give everything to get up and help in the fight, despite the fact that she probably wouldn't survive it. She would give everything... everything.

Out of nowhere, she felt an alien strength flooding into her. She couldn't see it, bit on her forehead, the sigl of Jupiter flared up, glowing a bright green. Ami noticed the glow, despite her pain, and saw Makoto stagger to her feet, her face turning from pain to determination, and in a green flash, something appeared out of thin air, hovering in front of her. Ami recognised it as a transformation wand, the symbol of Jupiter on its top.

Makoto wondered for a moment what this thing was, but quickly dismissed it. She KNEW that it would help her, although she had no idea why she did so. She just did. Taking the wand, she felt compelled to hold it high and the words came on their own.

"Jupiter Power, make up!"

Ami forgot the pain for a moment when seeing Makoto get stripped naked by the magic. Part of her was surprised that the Senshi of Jupiter had actually come to them, while a different part did note that Makoto hadn't bragged when saying that she worked out, her strong built very noticeable when being in the nude, and yet she'd managed to retain her feminine curves and softness. Makoto's breasts were bigger than girl-Ranma's... hell, even bigger than Shampoo's, and that meant something. It essentially was what one would imagine a "hot Amazon" in comic books to be and the boys who avoided her must have been stupid.

Thankfully unlike with Ranma, Ami felt nothing out of the ordinary when seeing the naked girl, reinforcing the idea that she only was attracted to girl-Ranma because she was Ranma, and not because of the girl-thing.

From out out of the wand, lightning emerged, dancing over Makoto's body, actually tickling her in placed better left unmentioned. The crackling electricity then tightly hugged her and for a moment she felt it shooting up her spine, giving her a reviving -and even a little pleasurable- adrenaline kick, before in a flash it formed into the Shinshi uniform of Jupiter, its primary colors being green and light pink. By now it seemed the footwear was going to be the biggest difference in the uniforms beside the color, with Makoto wearing green, laced-up sports shoes.

The newly-awakened Sailor Jupiter seemed stunned for a moment, staring at the outfit which she thought she should tear off and replace with something more practical, before her head snapped back up when hearing a scream from the outside.

Outside, things had gone south.

Libra was hurting a lot since the girl had given her quite a beating. Her pride had been badly hurt by the idea that a normal human could beat up her -a Youma- although she knew she wasn't one of the stronger Youma. She had finally gotten in a good strike which had sent the girl to the ground, knocking the wind out of her in the process.

"You've really pissed me off..." the Youma growled. Right now she only wanted to get back at the girl for her humiliation.

From the ground, Akane could only groan in pain, the strike had slammed hard into her chest and it had hurt like hell. She'd been surprised how she actually had been able to hurt this monster, but then she'd become overconfident and promptly got punished for it.

_Strange way for me to go, right when I finally proved that I can actually do something..._

"Keep your hands off her!"

Libra barely had enough time to see who said that, before she got a gloved fist smacking into her face. She'd seen a Senshi, but that was it as the tall girl started to beat the snot out of her. This Senshi had far less skill than the previous girl, but she made up for this with magically enhanced strength. Libra had no time to even scream, especially when a brutal high kick knocked out several of her teeth. There was little sophistication, it just was a brutal show of strength and anger.

Jupiter at the same time was overwhelmed with what had happened to her, so she was running on autopilot. That meant beating up the bad guy. Yet, even that wasn't enough. She felt a power surge deep within her, forcing its way outwards. She didn't notice the small antenna emerging from her tiara and the air crackling with electricity. Then it happened; lightning getting attracted into the antenna.

Jupiter felt the electricity roaming through her body, wanting a way out. The words came on their own, while she pointed both hands forward. "Supreme Thunder!"

"AHHH!" Libra barely go out a scream, before the lightning hit her dead on. The sheer force blasted her back several meters, before it ripped her apart, her body exploding into a dust cloud in the process.

With the destruction of the Youma, the spell also was broken and everyone was slowly coming to. With the rush over, Makoto stood there, confused, but that didn't last for long when Akane, who had finally gotten back onto her feet, approached her.

"Don't stand there! I know you're scared but you don't want to stand here looking like this. Run for cover, touch the stone in the bow and wish this thing away!"

On second thought, Jupiter really didn't want to have the entire school look her her while she was wearing this. With an untypical squeak of embarrassment, she ran behind the storage shed before anyone would note that she'd left and seconds later a normal looking Makoto emerged, although she was hastily trying to adjust something under her skirt (Akane didn't even want to know what had went wrong with her undergarments). Akane had already suspected it could have been her, considering the height.

"Explanations later, OK?" Akane whispered when Makoto was about to ask her what was going on.

That was not a second too early when Ukyo staggered out of the hole in the wall,shaking her head in order to try and get rid of the cobwebs in her mind. "Wah... what happened?" she wondered, having a total blackout from right after the start of the competition. Leaning against the wall, she watched a redhead girl approach Akane.

"I guess we now know why you didn't get sick yesterday," Ranma commented, playing at the baked bads incident of which she'd heard of. "You must have a steel-coated stomach that you didn't get sick."

Akane had to admit, that it did make sense. Every time she'd cooked, people only started to complain or get sick after eating it. She had of course tested it each time but had never found anything wrong with it. Of course now she knew that while the taste was OK, she was unable to detect that it would make people sick, since her own stomach was completely immune. That made it of course more difficult for her to learn cooking and perhaps that had also been one of the major problems.

"Hey, why can she wear a boys' uniform and I can't?" Ukyo suddenly said.

Ranma felt like rolling her eyes. Now of all times. She wasn't keen on telling Ukyo about her curse, but she felt the girl otherwise would pester her to no end. However, that was not what currently was occupying her mind. It was what the Youma had told her, before Akane had interrupted it rather rudely with a kick into the side.

_My soul smells? Shadow Hunter? What did this thing mean with that?_ she wondered, but got cut short when a loud shriek echoed through the yard.

Everyone looked to where Ms. Meiou had appeared and the way she was griping her hair while looking ready to have a hysteric fit when seeing the destruction caused by the monster left no doubt that she already was seeing a beurocratic nightmare approaching.

The pulsing vein on her forehead was warning enough to not dare to get too close to her.

* * *

_...in the Dark Kingdom..._

"Nephrite, since you already are here for the demonstration, what is your progress?" Beryl demanded as soon as Nephrite had appeared in the throne room, where Jadeite was setting up his demonstration.

Nephrite wanted to curse. Today had been another failure, thanks to most likely these damn Senshi. Even worse, Queen Beryl had called him back to witness what this weakling Jadeite had cooked up, which he felt was a threat to his position. Now she wanted answers from him and she wouldn't like what he had to say.

"I sadly have to report, that I met some opposition when trying to gather the needed energy," he admitted.

"Oh, the big, bad Nephrite didn't get what he wanted? What a shame!" Zoisite mocked from the sidelines, while Kunzite only gave him a mean smile which was telling him a lot.

"Enough!" the queen stopped it. "Nephrite, I have to say I'm disappointed, since you promised me fast results. Instead, you didn't gather any energy, a task at which Jadeite despite his losses had been quite successful at."

Nephrite could feel Jadeite's pleased smile, but stayed silent.

"However, that is of little concern for now, as we want to see what Jadeite has here for us." She then looked at the CD player and the vase full of flowers sitting on a table. "Although I have to admit that right now I don't see how this could be a great plan."

"My queen, it will all reveal itself to you..." Jadeite said, then tuned on the CD player.

"Argh! What's that infernal noise?" Beryl shrieked as soon as everyone got blasted from the loud music that came out of the machine. It was hurting her ears and she doubted that Jadeite would have much success by blowing away people's ears.

"This is what the youth today calls music. Quite sad, how much their standards have sunk. But watch the flowers," Jadeite told her.

They did so and saw to their surprise, how the flowers started to wither away, getting drained of their energy, until they crumbled to dust. Jadeite right then stopped the music and looked very pleased with himself. It had taken quite some work, but now he would be able to gather the reward for the patience he'd shown when his researchers had told him that they'd need the time. Seeing Beryl demanding an explanation, he did so.

"We managed to graft the draining spell into music, thus it acts the same as a Youma draining energy. This here is the prototype, which drains at full power. This however won't happen with the final product. My plan is to to establish a production facility and then mass-produce this music. The plan will go in several phases. In phase one, we just distribute the music. Nobody will realize that we have hidden a subconscious suggestion in the music that will make them want to listen to it again and again. Once we have reached wide circulation, phase two will start and an activation signal unlocks the draining poperties of the music. On one person, it is insigificant and unnoticeable, but on tens of thousands it quickly amounts to a lot."

"I must say I'm impressed, Jadeite. I didn't expect you to develop such a devious plan," Kunzite told him in honest surprise. "Won't the Senshi shut it down once they notice?"

"Of course they will. But when they do, it already will be far too late and all the energy in our energy tanks here. It doesn't matter then anyway, as the data on the disks will become irreparably corrupted some days after activation of the draining abilities, a side-effect we were unable to eliminate."

"I protest! Gathering energy is my job," Nephrite protested.

Queen Beryl seemed to think over it for a moment. "Hmmm, Jadeite, how long until you plan comes to fruition?"

"We need to build production facilities and prepare everything for day X. Everything included, the sales of our 'hot music' can start in three weeks and a few days afterwards, it is harvest time," Jadeite told her, while sending Nephrite a look of triumph.

"There is your deadline, Nephrite. You have exactly three weeks to gather enough energy that I can wake up our great Master. Failure at this task will have interesting consequences," she told Nephrite, the look in her eyes making it clear that he'd fall out of her favor should he prove unable to keep his promise.

"Yes, my queen," Nephrite hesitantly acknowledged, feeling that now he'd have to double his efforts.

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"Sailor V unveiled"**_

* * *

**Notes:**

**If you wonder that the Youma's comment about Ranma has some connection with his girl-form... It doesn't. What she has noted about Ranma has no connection to gender and always applies to him, regardless of form. More on what actually is going on about that in the next chapter.**

**Again sorry that Makoto didn't get much detail here, the chapter got too big. She'll be properly introduced in the next chapter, together with Minako. Thankfully, most exposition is over after that.**

**Guess where the "baked bads" come from...**


	12. Sailor V unveiled

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

The team finally is complete and we learn a little more about the legacy Ranma will inherit. Next chapter will have more about him and Ami.

**Wow, this chapter got finished real late. Soryy for that, but first I got burried under a huge pile of work and then I also suffered a huge writer's block that stopped me from writing anything for almost a month. Thankfully I'm finally over it but some parts of the chapter suffered from it.**

**Note that specific notes are at the end of the chapter, to avoid spoilers.**

* * *

**Chapter 11: Sailor V unveiled**

"That's like getting run-over by a steamroller," Makoto commented, while accepting the calming tea that Rei offered her.

The mess at the school was bad enough, but finally they'd managed to leave and guide her to the shrine, where they'd finally explained to her what exactly was going on. Right now she regretted she'd asked, as she needed time to digest everything she'd been told in the last half an hour.

Magical girls, a prince of Earth, talking cats, talking crows, gender-changing martial artists and bad guys who wanted to take over the world. It was a lot to take in, especially after being told that she was one of these warriors. That had added embarrassment to the mix; as she'd worn some pretty daring things, but never something like this. She tried to be more feminine, but that went far beyond the red line and to add to it, she was told that she could only try and learn to shove aside her embarrassment. That went especially for doing a striptease each time she'd transform.

"My head is swimming a little right now..." Makoto added, before drinking the tea to calm down.

"Be glad that Pluto isn't here. She'd have given you a much bigger infodump." Naru thought over her words, before adding "By the way, where IS Pluto? I expected her to show up as well, considering what happened."

"I called her. She told me that there's a situation that needs her full attention. She looked stressed, so I felt it better to leave her alone," Usagi explained, while giving Makoto curious looks the entire time.

She couldn't know that right at this moment Setsuna was trying to battle her way through the red tape caused by the incident at the school, had disconnected her phone to finally stop questions from the press and was swearing that whoever was responsible for this would get a Dead Scream shoved up the ass -unknown to her Nephrite at this moment felt as if someone had stepped onto his grave.

"All this might be normal for you, but for me that's like Alice who steps into the rabbit hole." Hearing several snickers, Makoto wondered what this was about until she realised what Usagi's name meant. "Oh, I meant no offense."

Usagi waved it off. "Considering how many rabbit-related jokes I've already heard over the years, that was nothing."

"Say, I'm curious. We know so little about you. How about you tell us about yourself. That should help your nerves," Ami suggested, since up to now Makoto hadn't really revealed much about herself.

"Well, I guess it can't hurt." Setting down the cup, Makoto composed herself for a moment. "I better start with that I really live alone. When I was ten, my parents died in a plane crash and I was forced to live with relatives."

"That's what you meant that your mother is gone?" Naru asked. Unseen, Mamoru grimaced, knowing exactly what the girl had went through. The loss of both parents through an accident was a horrible experience.

"Yes... It still hurts, although time has blunted it. I hated living with my relatives, they were so distant and probably did it because they felt it was their duty, but nothing more. So I tried to be tough... big deal did it do for me when I hit puberty and became the tallest girl in school with the biggest chest. Either people ignore these two knockers and call me masculine, or they only see them and call me a slut."

"Jeez, I turn into a girl but still don't get why that is such a big deal..." Ranma commented.

"Guess you are not mature enough to understand." Mamoru then whispered to Ranma what body part and its size importance would be analogous for males. He gulped hard and looked away, while everyone knew what was meant.

It had helped to loosen up Makoto, while she continued. "Well... there was one boy who did understand me, in the grade above and I met him when I was thirteen. My Sempai never saw a tomboy or a slut, just me. My luck that his parents moved away and we had to say goodbye. I never saw him again and you can imagine that it didn't help my mood."

Makoto took a deep breath to calm down. "When I turned fourteen, I finally managed to convince my uncle to let me live in my own apartment. I get money from my parents' trust fund and nominally my relatives are still responsible for me, but they couldn't care less. I guess you already heard that I was thrown out of several schools since then? Let me explain..."

"Many think that happened because I bullied other students. It's the opposite. I got so fed up with seeing the weaker students being bullied; I felt since I'm so strong I have to do something. No, I didn't beat the bullies up, I just scared the living daylights out of them with a show of strength. What I didn't factor in was, that the ones who are the worst are usually spoiled by wealthy parents; which means influential parents. Guess how easy it was to paint me as the guilty party."

"Yeah, that sucks," Ranma commented. "Reminds me of some of these whiny wanna-be martial artists who tried to have their parents sue me after I won."

Makoto didn't comment on it. "Well, there isn't much more about me right now. I like to cook, I do martial arts in my free time and I'm still looking for the perfect boyfriend, strong and loyal."

"Ha, good luck finding one at this school. The wimp population at this school is quite high," Akane snorted.

"The only one who does fit your description is already taken, so you are in bad luck," Naru added, looking to Ranma, who tried to look away. What was it with girls acting like finding a boyfriend was as if visiting a bazaar?

"And I always thought that boys worship girls with big breasts," Rei said to herself, feeling a little understacked when seeing Makoto's big bust.

"Hey hey, better stop before we get too far off-topic!" Mamoru quickly said, before the whole thing would degrade into embarrassing girl-talk. He already heard enough of that at college.

"Yes, because there is another topic we have to discuss."

They hadn't noticed the door sliding open and now saw Artemis slowly entering the room. The white cat looked to Luna, before getting himself back under control and got to the point. "It is really good that you have found the Senshi of Jupiter, since this means we can now finally put the team together before we move on to more pressing issues."

The door opened up a a blond girl walked in that some of them recognised at once. It was Minako Aino, the girl they'd dismissed as a queen-bee and airhead after seeing her with her court of admirers. They wondered what she was doing here until it clicked when seeing Artemis. As if to underline it, she then held up her transformation wand, showing off the symbol of Venus on top, before letting it vanish back into her subspace pocket.

Naru's eyes widened. "I can't believe it. YOU have been Sailor Venus the entire time?"

Thankfully, Minako had expected this reaction. After all, she knew the kind of reputation she had at school and had needed weeks to ditch all these boot-lickers who'd swarmed around her all the time. "Easy! Please let me explain."

"Have I missed something?" Rei wondered when seeing this reaction.

"Minako Aino basically is at our school what can be described as a school princess, with mediocre grades and yet a huge court of admirers," Naru explained, before looking to Minako. "The way you act, you're not proud of that fact."

"Hell, no! I hated it!" Minako defended herself, holding up both hands. "Please believe me, that just happened and I needed weeks to finally get rid of them. I never wanted to have such a fan club. And I also didn't want people to think I'm a stupid bimbo." Seeing no one say a word, she added. "Uhm, you want to know what my story is?"

"Better start at the beginning. After all, you're doing this the longest of all of us," Rei finally decided, offering her a spot at the table.

"Thanks..." Sitting down, Minako went right to the point. "Before you ask, my family life is completely uninteresting and boring. My father works hard and my mother tends to the house, when she isn't on my case about my grades. Other than that I try more or less to get through school when not doing this superhero stuff."

"'Less' being the word ever since I keep the disguise pen during school hours to prevent cheating. Your grades have become an embarrassment," Artemis added, earning him a hard glare from Minako. He ignored it and instead noticed Luna's looks. "I guess your charge also is a slacker?"

"She lives and breathes it," Luna remarked, this time getting a hard glare from Usagi.

"Hey, what is it with cats being mean to us?" she complained, hating it when Luna made fun of her grades.

Makoto didn't say anything, but she was glad to not have a magical pet companion who'd needle her about her grades, since her grades really weren't something to be proud about. She managed to get though school, yes, but she doubted that anyone would be impressed by them. At least she now wasn't alone in this. Shared misery hurt less.

"No tuna for you for a week," Minako told Artemis, before turning back to the others. "As I said before I got interrupted, my life wasn't exciting. Then one day half a year ago, I cross paths with Artemis, who promptly tells me I'm a re-incarnated warrior form the past. Well, he told me after I recovered from fainting after seeing a talking cat. When I finally believed him and tried it... gods, I was ready to strangle him after seeing the outfit."

"Ah yes, concerning that... Who had the genius idea of letting us run around in that?" Makoto interrupted when hearing that. "How are was supposed to be taken serious when walking around in this outfit?"

"Ah, yeah, you don't know. We have no choice in the matter and you're not alone; I needed a week to get over it," Minako didn't want to remember how embarrassed she'd been. "Ok, where was I?...Ah, yes! You can imagine how much things changed after that. I mean, being a magical warrior and disguising myself as the Moon Princess so that the real one is kept safe... Wew, things really got nasty after my parents and I temporarily moved to London."

"To make things short, the Dark Kingdom had used an offshoot called the Dark Agency to try and get a foothold. I came, I saw and I kicked their asses, before I returned home after meeting Pluto who FINALLY explained what was actually going on." Minako didn't feel like explaining the lows of what had personally happened to her during that time. "Since then I'm helping when I can and I got the green light today that I shouldn't hide away any longer. That's basically it."

"How exciting! No wonder Sailor V is famous," Usagi fawned.

Minako shook her head. "Not that I can buy anything from it... And now here I am, ready to stand at your side... although it'll be a little awkward until I know you better."

Makoto then felt everyone looking to her. She knew what they wanted. "Hehe, I guess you now want to know if I'm in as well?"

"It would be good to have you with us. Your fighting skills are the best of us." Seeing Ranma's annoyed look, Ami added "Sorry, Ranma, but I meant of magic girls. I didn't count civilians."

Makoto still didn't actually know how good Ranma was, she'd seen too little of him. Not that it was important right now. "That's like me and the bullies, only much bigger and more serious... You can't bet I'm in and I can't wait to kick butt!"

"Perfect, that's really good." Minako then looked around. "So, what do you girls do in your free time?"

Five minutes later, Ranma and Mamoru fled the house.

"That was horrible!" Ranma gasped, while trying to get over the horror. "I really like Ami, but after even she got into this girl-talk... That room's become a damn death-trap."

"Welcome to the world of grown-ups. Now you know what I have to endure at college, without any chance to flee. But that was the most intense one yet," Mamoru admitted. "Over time you learn to know when to retreat."

Ranma still couldn't believe it that Ami, who normally wasn't like that, had went along with it. He really liked Ami, but that was scary to no end, how in minutes the calm and not overly girly Ami could transform into... into THAT. It was a side of her he'd never seen before and proof that despite her profound lack of interest in girlish activities, she by far wasn't a tomboy. Although since Akane was also participating in the room of death right now, Ranma guessed that this wasn't a criteria for this kind of activity.

"You go through this every day?" Ranma couldn't help but to start and feel that Mamoru had more guts than he'd first thought. "Man, you're braver than me."

Mamoru could tell that Ranma was lacking the advice of a more experienced male. Mamoru hadn't met the man in person, but it seemed that his father was seriously ill-equipped for the task, resulting in that Ranma had quite a gap in his knowledge. After all, there were things only another man could tell him; things that were essential.

"Let me tell you some interesting things..."

Two crows and mooncats watched the two men leave. They'd felt that right now they wouldn't be useful with the girls being in full talking-mode. That was something they could easily miss, as they knew it would be completely trivial stuff they were talking about.

"Something tells me that these two over time can be best buddies." Phobos commented, before looking to Luna and Artemis. "However, something else bugs me. Why are we forbidden from just telling the Moon Princess who she is?"

"Do I have to peck you again?" Deimos warned her brother, being annoyed that he sometimes was rather slow.

"Pluto explained it already. If she were to know now already, the whole thing would crush her. Usagi is a very simple girl at heart and telling her now would put too much onto her shoulders. Over time we can prepare her for it, but for now the time isn't right," Luna reminded Phobos.

"Besides, it wouldn't be of any use anyway," Artemis added. "Without the Silver Crystal, her knowledge of her previous life won't help her. It actually would put her in harms way since it would alert our enemies."

"Ok, ok! I got it!" Phobos held up his wings in defense. "Too bad that we have absolutely no idea where to find the stupid crystal."

"We can only hope that Pluto does find a lead on it. After all, the world is huge and I sincerely doubt we can find it just by chance," Luna said, shaking her head. "My memories of the queen using the crystal are hazy, so I have no idea what exactly happened to it."

"I really wish back the days when we just had a bunch of soldiers at our disposal to do these things..." Deimos sighed.

* * *

_...at the same time..._

Isamu Nakamura again felt his age, while lighting the candles on the altar.

Kneeling in front of the altar that showed a warrior battling a demon, he sadly again reflected how little was left of a once great legacy. Their family once had been chosen to fight the forces of darkness and defend the people from the threat that lurked under the surface. It was their job to battle back the evil forces. They were the Shadow Hunters of these lands.

No one knew when or why the family had been chosen, but they'd fulfilled their duty for centuries. However, unlike other families that were following the call -like the Ritter family in Germany or the Belmont clan in England- the Nakamura clan had fallen upon heavy times, and Isamu felt the he most likely would be the last Shadow Hunter before the line would die out.

It had started back in World War II, when most of the family had died. Even now, the family hadn't recovered from this massive blow. He himself did have only one son before his wife had been killed in an traffic accident. He had never gotten over this loss. And to rub salt into the wounds, his son had declared him to be mad, not believing a word about the family calling. He'd left him, breaking the bond of the call to become an salaryman. Not that there was something wrong with the job -he himself had worked as an accountant since hunting the forces of evil wouldn't pay the bills- it was how he did it.

His granddaughter Nodoka had shown promise, her fighting skills with the sword at a young age and her sharp mind already were impressive, but her upbringing destroyed any hope, as her parents had turned her into a twit with a serious reality loss, as if to spite him.

His last hope had been his great-grandson. Young Ranma had shown as much passion for fighting as one could imagine, but one day ten years ago the connection to the family destiny somehow got lost and even though Ranma now was back home, he would never be able to hear the call and his mother, who had finally become a decent person, by now was too old to follow destiny. He felt the age in his bones and it sent one message: the line of Shadow Hunters would die with him.

"Patrons of the light," he silently said to no one in particular. "My family has served you long and faithfully, but things are soon to end once I'm gone... Another clan has to take our place."

He hadn't expected to get any answer, there never before had been an answer, so it came as a surprise to him when all of a sudden the flames of the candles flared up. Having seen his share of the magical in his life, Isamu stayed calm and watched a picture form in the big flame. He saw a young man with unnaturally blue eyes and his black hair tied into a pigtail. Then he saw the same young man shatter the spine of a female demon with a jump-kick.

"Is it possible?" Isamu wondered, while the picture vanished, the last image being a yin-yang symbol. He had seen Ranma before his departure, and this were the same, unnaturally blue eyes. It was him.

Then he felt something. A feeling of something long lost re-connecting to the spirit of the Nakamura clan. Right at this moment Isamu knew that the patrons of the light had shown him that maybe his fears could be laid to rest; that what once had been lost had returned to its rightful place. And to see the boy already fighting the forces of evil...

While he knew his time was limited, he felt younger than he'd had in years. He would have to activate his network and find out as much as he could about his great-grandson, before he'd speak with him in person.

The possibility that their legacy wasn't fated to die out gave him new strength to go on. He only wondered what the symbol at the end could have meant.

* * *

_...two days later..._

Makoto felt somewhat insulted. She didn't get why the girls of the class had to go through mandatory courses like this that were only there to prepare for the 'good and obedient housewife'. While she felt that cooking at least still had a practical use, a sewing class was just rubbing into it. To make matters worse, she already was quite good at sewing and was horribly bored.

While that wasn't fair to their teacher Ms. Akiyama, who seemed to really like her work, the other girls seemed to share her suffering. Akane's desperate attempts to understand what the teacher was talking about looked like she was trying to learn Swahili, so it was easy to guess that she had no idea of sewing. Usagi had her attention more on Ms. Akiyama than on the blackboard, although Makoto had no idea, why. Naru looked bored to tears, chewing on her pencil and seemingly wishing for the class to be over as fast as possible.

_My new friends share my misery,_ she sarcastically thought, before looking to the other side, where Ukyo was sitting.

The girl had recovered from the incident without problem, but had become somewhat withdrawn. Not that she could blame her. Interestingly enough, it seemed she was one of the few girls that actually paid interest in this class, which went sharply against her tomboyish image. It was a gentle reminder that people were more complex than first thought.

Returning her attention to the class she noticed Ms. Akiyama being done with writing, absent-minded looking out of the window. Makoto really wondered what was going on with the woman, considering that she made this class even more boring than it already was. And the air in the room seemed suffocating since they couldn't open the windows because of the construction workers outside being busy with repairing the damage the school had suffered, which was quite loud.

School went by slowly.

Finally after it was over, Makoto sat with Usagi and Naru in the outdoor area of an ice cream parlor, enjoying Friday afternoon. Akane had left for the commercial district and Ranma and Ami had went went home for Ami to help him with a more complicated school topic. They actually had no idea what school hours Rei had and Minako had gotten detention and wouldn't join them. So it was just the three of them.

"I sincerely wonder why they make us learn that stuff. Is the teacher always that boring?" Makoto asked, while enjoying her ice cream.

Since Usagi was busy with her own ice cream, Naru answered. "Normally... no. I wonder what's the matter with her?"

"**-slurp-** Yes, she seemed so distracted. Very unusual, if you ask me," Usagi added.

"I know why!"

"Ahhh!" The girls were scared for a second when all of a sudden class-geek Umino appeared out of nowhere. "Umino, do that again and I'll make sure you eat your laptop!" Naru then hissed at him, giving him the most evil eye possible.

It seemed to work, as Umino gulped hard before opening his small, black book. "The reason why Ms. Akiyama is so distracted is because of her wedding." Seeing the looks of disbelief, he continued "Oh, it was bound to happen, after all she already is 34 years old. Word is that she has finally found the right man and that she's creating her own wedding gown."

"Woooah... That sounds so dreamy." Makoto couldn't help but to imagine herself one day wearing a wedding gown.

"Any idea who the guy is that she's marrying?" Naru asked Umino.

"Actually...no." Umino did look a little embarrassed that he didn't have that information. "I know he's a German, but nothing more than that."

Usagi made a dramatic pose, holding her ice cream cone high. "Yahooo, it proves that loves conquers all. She probably will marry a big, blond man, strong like a bear!" Suddenly her ice cream dropped onto her head. "Eeeeeeeek!"

"Oh no, Usagi! What a disaster!" Umino screamed in panic, while Naru and Makoto couldn't help but to laugh at Usagi's mishap.

o

"They at least couldn't have laughed at me," Usagi grumbled, while aimlessly walking through the district.

True, Naru and Makoto had apologised afterwards, but Usagi still was a little hurt that they'd found her misfortune funny. Then they both had to be on their way, as Makoto had to shop to fill her fridge and Naru had promised her mother to help in the store. That had left her with nothing to do and no wish to be home yet. After all, she right now didn't want to hear Shingo again making fun of her over another mediocre grade.

"You of all people should know best how hard it is to not laugh at other's misfortune," Luna reminded her, while walking beside her. "I remember some weeks ago, when..."

"All right, I get it!" Usagi stopped her animal guardian from saying any more. "At least you can't lecture me on one thing... Not after what Minako told me."

"What Minako told you?" Luna had a feeling what it could be.

"Weeelll... She told me that you met with Artemis last evening and he only came back home early in the morning. That raises the question what kind of naughty stuff you two are doing." Usagi enjoyed the look of panic that Luna gave her when being told this.

"Usagi! What I do in my free time... I... If you tell anyone," Luna tried to find words. How unfair to use her love life against her. "And to your information, nothing of that sort happened. After all we are responsible adults."

"Keep quiet about my faults and I keep quiet about your little adventures." Right then they walked by a wedding chapel and Usagi noticed what was going on in front of it. "Oh, a wedding. Ahhhh, does the bride look great. I really want to have such a great wedding as well, when I'm older."

"If you can find Mr. Right..." _...who needs nerves of steel if he's to live with you for years, _Luna silently added.

"What's that?" Usagi then wondered, when seeing some workers pushing up a sign. "A wedding dress contest? A contest for the best self-made wedding dress and the first price and the first price is a wedding with all extravaganzas! YAY!..." Usagi then deflated. "Well, yay if I could sew."

"At least you admit you can't." Luna had feared that Usagi would get another stupid idea, but thankfully at least in this case she knew her limits.

"But what about if we don't want to marry yet?"

Knowing this voice, Usagi looked to the crowd and indeed saw Rei there, looking like she'd come fresh out of school, arguing with a man who looked like the owner of the chapel. Said owner looked smug at her, his thick-framed glasses barely hiding his triumph at the interest he'd already created.

"That's no problem at all, you can always save it for up to ten years. The only limitation is, that the wedding has to be at my chapel," he smugly told her. "And don't forget, the contest is to be held in a week, next Friday."

That met with cheers from the crowd of woman, who then left in a hurry, leaving Rei to ponder the whole thing. "Wow... That sounds really great... Hmmm, maybe..."

"Hello, Rei."

That pulled her out of thoughts. "Ahhh! Usagi... what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing. Rei, please don't tell me you're trying to win that contest," Usagi asked her.

"Of course I do! Although grandfather will be sad that my future wedding won't be at our shrine, he can hardly argue when I tell him that it saves us many expanses. Hmmm, it gives me ten years to find a suitable man..." Rei already had this dreamy look in her eyes.

Usagi knew from hearing Rei's story that after her bad luck with getting a boyfriend, this was her way to assure herself that she'd still have her chance. Even though she wasn't the brightest light, Usagi still knew that this would most likely end in tears. "Rei, can you even sew?"

That deflated her. "Uhm... Can you?"

"Nope, that's why I know I don't have a chance and don't bother." Usagi tried to not show her disappointment. Two years ago she would've foolishly tried several weird things in order to participate, but she'd experienced enough of the world to know at least this time that she'd only make a fool of herself.

Rei didn't seem to have come to this conclusion yet. "Well, too bad for you. I just got a plan that'll blow the judges right out of their seats. With that, first prize is as good as mine."

Usagi wasn't good at math, but for someone who wasn't schooled in sewing to make a complete wedding dress in a week from scratch, even she knew that this didn't add up. "If you are really sure..."

"You bet I do! I already see it before my mind's eye! It'll be the best day of my life!" Determined, Rei left, leaving a baffed Usagi behind.

They hadn't noticed Ms. Akiyama on the other side of the street, reading the sign in interest before leaving in a hurry.

* * *

_...meanwhile in downtown Tokyo..._

Sitting in his car, which he'd parked in a quiet shopping street in downtown Tokyo, Nephrite was brooding.

The whole issue of having to find enough energy in time was becoming critical. How was he supposed to deliver results in less than three weeks at the latest? He started to get the feeling that he'd promised more than he could hold. To make things worse, the stars were uncooperative at the moment, denying him any insight on a fitting target to drain. So he'd driven through the city before he'd ended up in this street, trying to ponder his tactics.

_So much is sure; either I get a big one soon or I'm completely disgraced,_ he darkly thought.

It would be a huge embarrassment for him if Jadeite would execute his own plan before he would be able to give Queen Beryl the promised energy. He'd seeing the looks Jadeite had give him... like a shark before dinner time. Nephrite now cursed himself for promising too much. To imagine that every lowly Youma would make fun of him should he fail...

Nephrite stopped in his tracks when he felt some interesting vibrations. "Hmmm, that's interesting." Looking out of the window, he saw that the feeling originated from a woman looking at the display of a cloth shop. Seeing another woman approaching her, he lowered the window and listened in on their conversation.

On the sidewalk, Ms. Akiyama was busy with trying to come to a decision.

After seeing the billboard announcing the wedding dress competition, she felt compelled to try and win it. After all, both of them weren't wealthy and the opportunity to win an extravagant wedding with the dress she'd already finished wouldn't come again. Yet she felt that something was missing on her dress, something she hoped she could find in the cloth shop. It wouldn't be too difficult to alter the dress and they'd planned the wedding two weeks after the competition. Perfect timing.

"Hello, Ms. Akiyama!"

She knew that voice. "Oh, Ms. Haruna." While the woman with nice enough, her strangely immature actions and her energetic behavior were sometimes a little disconcerting.

"I'm so excited for you. I'm even a little envious. You'll look wonderful in your self-made wedding dress!" she cheered. "After all you're so good, I wonder why you became a teacher instead of a dressmaker."

"Oh, uhm, thank you." Sometimes she really was unable to say something in her shyness and settled with re-adjusting the light metal frame of her glasses. "Something is still missing on the dress... something with a special note." No need to tell her she'd enter the competition.

"Ohhh, that sounds interesting! Why don't we together look for what's missing?... Ohhh, I still need to find a man to accompany me to the wedding..."

Nephrite watched the woman leave, using his powers to tag them. It was interesting and the feeling had intensified when listening in. The topic itself was completely irrelevant for him, what counted was, that one of the woman was giving of vibes that her energy level was rising. That needed further investigation and he started the engine to check it out.

A little later, he was ready to seek answers.

"The stars know everything." He chanted, and this time the stars were cooperative.

"The firmament was full of Vega's tears, as she hadn't managed to pass the galactic band. But now her strength is pouring into one woman..." His eyes got lost into the spectacles of stars and star lanes when getting the answer.

"Hirgure Akiyama... Her energy will soon fulfill our needs."

o

Ms. Akiyama hadn't expected it to be like this. She should have expected it, however. The cloth shop was overrun with woman who all seemed to want to get the best cloth in order to participate in the contest. It looked like a particularly brutal fight and total chaos mixed together, and it seemed that Ms. Haruna was completely in her element, literally fighting for every strip of cloth.

"I didn't expect it to be like this!" she gasped, while watching her colleague vanishing into the fighting crowd. "How can I find something special in this chaos?"

It was then when a roll of cloth fell to her feet. Picking it up, she inspected it. It surely was something special. The fabric was very soft and seemed to shimmer in the light. It looked very promising and the price tag told her that it was well within her budget.

"This is surely something special."

She hadn't even noticed someone approaching and suddenly saw an elegantly dressed man standing in front of her. Not used to becoming the center of attention, she stammered "O-oh, y-you really mean that?"

"Oh yes." He took a feel of the cloth. "This is fabric truly meant for something great and would make be perfect for a special occasion like a wedding. You would look wonderful in it."

Ms. Akiyama felt flattered. Although she already had a wedding dress made, maybe she could get some improvements... She stopped for a second when feeling as if something had happened, but quickly shoved it aside; the fabric was perfect. "Oh, thank you. You are completely right."

"No problem, I always like to help..." She couldn't see his smirk while he left the shop.

_That was too easy,_ Nephrite silently chuckled, while leaving the shop.

The stupid woman was the perfect victim. However, things would go slowly this time, as he knew her energy maximum wouldn't be reached until late next week, which gave him free time to spend. He didn't feel like returning to his hideout and sitting there, essentially doing nothing, so he started to aimlessly walk around in the district. He found it interesting to mingle with the common folk, as normally that was Jadeite's modus operandi, who relied a lot on field work.

Walking through the streets, he let his mind wander.

He'd had found little time to think ever since the Dark Kingdom had reawakened from its state of suspended animation almost a year ago. There had almost been so much to do... and others to plot against. It had given him no time to think about the past and the future and what he actually wanted to do.

Actually, things even had been hectic in the old days.

He still remembered the burning hatred when being shown the truth, that he and the other three generals had been brainwashed into believing that they were loyal underlings of the Earth King. Their sheer fury at the revelation had made them even more destructive in the following carnage... He was really convinced that this was the truth and didn't question it at all.

And yet, while the others seemed content, something bothered him. Something which he was unable to grasp, making him annoyed.

_Is this an aftereffect of the brainwashing? Maybe if I... _he was stopped in his thoughts when he suddenly ran into someone.

"Sorry, I didn't look where I was going!"

"No, I didn't look..." Taking a look at who he'd accidently knocked down, he saw a teenage girl with a tomboyish haircut gathering her shopping bags. "...so the fault is mine, Ms..."

"Akane Tendo." Having gathered her shopping bags, she finally got a good look at whom she'd collided with and stopped for second. "You are very polite, others would've just walked away, Mr..."

"Masato Sanjouin."

The thing about Nephrite was, that while he didn't have the highest opinion about their future subjects, he didn't actively try to be an asshole and thought of himself as cultured. Jadeite felt superior, Zoisite was a bitch to next to everyone and Kunzite felt above most people. He however wouldn't be this arrogant. That, and passing the time with some shallow chatter was better than just walking around.

Twenty minutes later found them both sitting at a outside table of a cafè, enjoying some iced coffee while mostly Akane spoke.

"...and yet, most of the males I met were either perverts or wimps...although I have to admit that it also applies to many girls. You are frankly one of the most polite men I've met," Akane told him, before talking another sip from her drink.

"I hope this doesn't mean you see me as material for courtship. I fear I'm a little too old for that." _You have no idea how old,_ Nephrite silently added.

Akane defensively held up her hand. "Oh no! My father would have a stroke!" Akane was sure it was nothing like that, since the man had to be around 30. Even Dr. Tofu was younger than that and Kasumi was three years her senior. "I'm just glad to meet you, most people in this district are so withdrawn; completely unlike my old neighborhood."

"And that bothers you?" Nephrite was new to the concept.

"Of course it does. If everyone hides who they really are, how would you know where your loyalities are, whom you can trust?" Although Akane had by now forgiven Usagi for not telling her that she was Sailor Moon, she hadn't forgotten it. "Trust, loyality and honesty. I think that's most important."

Nephrite wasn't showing it, but these words had more of an impact than he'd have thought possible. He couldn't explain it, but something felt important to them, although he didn't know, what exactly. It was a small, annoying feeling at the back of his mind that, now that it had appeared, wouldn't go away. It was the most strange thing.

They talked about some other things for some time, before Akane got up. "Sorry, but I have to hurry if I want to be home in time."

"Yes... I was very... pleasant to meet you," Nephrite said a bit absent-minded.

Akane didn't catch it, not used to picking up subtle mood shifts. "Who knows, maybe we meet again one day?"

"Perhaps... And maybe sooner than we think." Watching her leave, Nephrite couldn't help but to wonder how her simple words could have such an impact on him. Hopefully he could clear his head and again concentrate on the task ahead.

_At least it was nice... _he thought.

Akane at the same time had to scold herself. That she'd fallen into the trap of gushing over a man that was almost double her age was most improper. She just wished he'd been ten years younger, but as it stood, she could only see him as a new yardstick for male company. Too bad that then Ranma would not measure up very well.

* * *

_...Saturday afternoon, Saotome garden..._

"Come on! I know you can do better!" Ranma called, watching the two girls start the next round.

Today was different from usual. Akane had finally intended to ask Makoto about her skill but clumsy wording had resulted in an outright challenge. Wanting this to be held in a more civilized way, they'd both agreed with Ranma to take the challenge in the training spot in the garden after school. What he hadn't told them was, that he'd first put both of them through the grinder by telling them to try and hit him.

Of course they hadn't succeeded but he'd afterwards told them that everyone could win a fight when well rested, but it'd show true power after being put through something like this before the actual fight. And now the differences between the two girls were more clear. Akane obviously had more experience and some serious strength -Ranma still wondered why she didn't show it more- while Makoto made for it with the dirty tricks of a street brawler.

"They seem fairly even matched, considering how different they fight," Ami observed from the sidelines, using the Mercury Computer to record it so that she could later get some pointers from it. "And I'm a little intimidated. I had no idea high school girls can pack such serious strength without magic."

"Akane gets her strength the same way I do, only not as good and she doesn't really show it. Makoto is all hard work, remember she told us she lifts dumbbells and does push-ups regularly and jogs twenty kilometers three times a week without getting winded," Ranma explained.

That didn't help to reduce the awkwardness. "I don't think I can keep up with that..."

She didn't want to tell him of her only attempt to get into jogging a little over a year ago. Her mother had encouraged her to try it out, but she'd become exhausted after only a kilometer, her legs had hurt like hell and she had thrown up into a bush after getting sick from all the running. Her mother afterwards had concluded that maybe Ami was better suited for sports that weren't as draining.

"Not everyone is made for it." Ranma had no illusions and knew that with his focus on personal fitness, he was a small minority in Japan. "One moment... Akane, stop dreaming!" Said girl quickly returned her attention to the matter at hand. "What's the matter with her?"

"Now that you say it... She seemed strangely absent-minded all the day," Ami remembered. "It's as if she can't help but to think of something else."

"I hope she gets it back together..." he then returned to watching the two girls trying to get the upper hand.

Ami however only now noticed that Ranma seemed to be uncharacteristically stiff, almost as if he was trying to force himself to stand still. "Ranma, is something wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong." He hoped she wouldn't notice that he was lying through his teeth.

By now both, Akane and Makoto, were completely soaked with sweat, their skin glistering with the thick layer covering it. He liked Ami... he liked her really a lot and his not-so-innocent dreams were always about her. But he also was a teenage boy and seeing two heavily sweating girls in so mush physical action -especially with their gis literally glued to their bodies, hugging them and showing off every curve- he couldn't help it. He had to control himself to not show it and to not run off in order to take care of the problem -something he still couldn't bring himself to do anyway.

Ranma tried to shake his thoughts out of it, since thinking about that also made him think about his girl-body. Things had been busy enough that he'd had an easy time to not think about it, forcing it out of his mind. But of course the issue wouldn't go away. While he had accepted the situation, he hadn't really learned to live with being a part-time girl, not to speak about embracing it. He knew it would come to bite him sooner or later, but he tried to not think about it.

Thankfully for his nerves, the match finally ended a little later when Akane got Makoto into a submission hold and forced the girl to the ground, leaving he no choice but to surrender. Getting up, they waited for any comments from Ranma while regaining their breath.

Remembering what his mother had told him about tact, he hoped he wouldn't say a wrong thing. "Now that you got that out of your system... Quite good. Akane, you already know what I think of your level... Makoto, you're on a good way, but your fighting is quite sloppy and there are holes in your defense. I could've defeated you in ten seconds flat."

Makoto blushed. "My various sensei said this as well. They said I fight like a thug and that I'm lacking the fine points," she reluctantly admitted.

"Don't sell yourself short. There are only few good fighters in this district. You're clearly in the top group of the local heap," Ranma countered.

"Yes... Ranma can't go all out or he could seriously hurt me by accident. You're much closer to my level... Although I still had to restrain myself somewhat, or it could have resulted in serious injury," Akane added, finally having regained her breath.

_THAT was restraint?_ Makoto right now decided that she didn't want to see a situation where Akane would lose her cool. "I wonder how you do it. You have less muscles than me."

"It's... too complicated to explain." She really didn't want to delve into how some martial artists can store energy, thus why they were so strong. "I'm just glad about it. I've seen what too many muscles can do to the female body... yuck!"

Makoto had to agree, she already was reaching the limit where her muscles would still look sexy. "As if I didn't know, some woman at the dojos I learned at looked like male bodybuilders. No way I want to end like that, I like myself as I am right now."

"I think you two can discuss this further in the furo. Right now you two are both stinking up the garden," Ranma reminded them.

Both girls only now noticed that they were indeed smelling horrible and quickly excused themselves, before vanishing inside. Looking after them, Ranma shook his head. "Ami, now I understand girls even less. One moment Makoto is an even bigger tomboy than Akane and almost acts like a man, and the next moment she's trying to outdo Usagi in girlyness."

Taking pity on his confusion, Ami tried to explain. "She's unsure of herself. She wants to be a girl and she wants to be strong, in the end overdoing it in both regards."

"To be frank, I'm glad she isn't my girlfriend. All this flip-flopping would've driven me nuts within days. Havin' her just as a friend at arm's distance is better," Ranma admitted, then looked to Ami. "Ami, I'm wondering how you can actually get so much out of this little thing," he said, pointing at the computer in her hands. "It has less keys than my school calculator."

Ami wasn't bothered by the sudden change in topic; she'd gotten used to it by now. "It is a fully usable computer... But the interface is a pain. Whoever had designed it didn't plan on it being user-friendly. I'm still working on finding out how to use all the commands."

Ranma watched her fingers dancing over the keys and felt like getting a headache. "Well, I know for sure that I would never get how it works. That's your world, you're way smarter than me."

"What have I told you about not selling yourself short?" Ami reminded him, but Ranma held up his hands.

"Look... I... Oh, stupid. I meant you're smart with stuff like that. Gadgets, numbers and that. When it comes to reading people, tactics and such stuff, that's my smart," Ranma hastily tried to correct himself.

"Way better." It was true that he had strengths where she was hopelessly outmatched, and the other way around. To think of it, he'd helped her a lot to be less withdrawn and more outgoing; something that came easy to him.

Snapping her computer shut, they walked inside. They were passing the table when Ami noticed a book on it. Curios, she looked at the title and her eyebrows raised. "'Dating for Dummies'? Since when do you read that?"

Blushing, Ranma quickly took hold of the book, the danger of the other girls finding it too big in his mind. "Not my idea! Mom gave it to me, said it could help me decide when... when to ask you for a date."

Ami shook her head. Leave it to Ranma's mother to have a strange idea. "And did the book help?"

"Uh... not really. I did learn that right now is not the right time for a real date. Let's leave it at friendly stuff for now," he explained.

Ami had to agree. While they no longer were dancing around the issue, both of them wanted to take their time and slowly get comfortable with the whole girlfriend-boyfriend situation. Maybe in some weeks they could have a real date, but until then they wanted to keep that on hold and just enjoy each other's company. For now it was enough.

o

Ukyo wondered how disturbed she had to be that she felt she needed to visit the local shrine. To be honest, she had justification for it, as ever since she'd moved to Minato ward, her life had been not-so hot. First Ranma tells her she'd wasted years for nothing, as her revenge was useless, then she'd let herself drawn into an anger-fueled contest with another girl and to crown everything, she'd gotten possessed by some kind of monster. Apart from business going well, her life was in a new low right now.

She now really regretted her decision to follow her wish for revenge, her half-cooked plan which in the end has only brought her an unstatisfying life. And right now she felt like many teenagers did: she felt lost.

She knew it probably wouldn't help her situation, but paying her respects at the shrine would make her feel sure, that at least the gods wouldn't be against her. Maybe she should even put a wishing stick onto the tree of fortune? After all, it couldn't hurt and after seeing Ranma changing his gender -and she still was embarrassed that she'd fainted after seeing it- she had started to believe that maybe if magic existed, the gods could do so as well.

**"Stop right there I said!"**

Having just cleared the stairs, Ukyo was greeted with a sight that was downright bizarre. An old man, obviously the priest of the shrine, was chasing someone, most likely a girl, who'd hastily thrown over a Shinto wedding gown. It almost looked like a scene right out of an anime and Ukyo wondered if she'd had too much sugar an was seeing things.

_Either I need to go out more, or Tokyo is really different from Osaka,_ she thought, while watching the merry chase.

"Watch out!"

Ukyo barely had time to see the girl running directly towards her. Having no time to react... **-Womm-** Both girls slammed into each other, going down. By the time Ukyo had gathered her wits, she saw the priest taking the wedding gown from the girl, whose outfit identified her as a miko, dusting it off before folding it back together.

"I should have known! Of course I get news about what other religious joints do, but I'd thought you were mature enough to to know that a sacred wedding gown is not to be used for a selfish purpose like that. That, and I'm disappointed that you'd even considered cheating," Grandfather Hino lectured Rei.

Rei tried to not look at him. Right now she felt like a little girl getting the scolding of her life. "It'd looked like a good plan back then..."

"Well, it was a stupid plan! Be glad that I didn't think that you've done this to impress a boy," that said, he walked back to the shrine to store the wedding gown; this time he'd lock the chest.

Rei looked after her grandfather. He'd had every right to be furious and she was sure she'd get extra chores later the day as a punishment. Yet she couldn't help but to notice that her grandfather was different from normal, almost as if something was on his mind. His recent unusual interest in her Senshi activities also was strange.

"Is this normal around here?" Ukyo finally asked.

"Oh sh..." Rei barely stopped herself from cursing. She'd totally forgotten that girl, who'd witnessed her dressing down. "Please don't tell anyone! I couldn't bear the humiliation."

Ukyo knew how it felt to get humiliated. The feeling was really unpleasant and she didn't want to be responsible for causing it to someone else. "I haven't seen anything."

Letting out a breath of relief, Rei came down to business. "Thanks... then welcome to the Hikawa Shrine. How can I help you? Charms? Wards? A wish?"

"Uhm... I wanted to pray first and then leave a wish in the tree," Ukyo told her, finally remembering what the plan was. It was her luck that their neighborhood temple was run by total nuts. Well, that couldn't be helped and she wouldn't complain as long as the service was good.

Rei let out a silent breath of relief; she hadn't scared away a customer. While leading the girl to the prayer altar, she was thinking about a way to save face after she'd told Usagi she'd easily win the competition. However, there was none. She could just never mention what her plan had been and ignore all questions, although that wouldn't stop the teasing.

_Life sometimes is unfair,_ Rei thought annoyed.

* * *

_...several days later, Thursday afternoon..._

"I wish I had a friend like you, Naru, when growing up. It would have saved me several embarrassing experiences," Minako commented, while she walked with Usagi and Naru down the road.

It was warm and they'd decided to spend their time in the arcade, much to Luna's and Artemis' horror, who'd told them they should better improve their grades. Of course that got ignored, resulting in two grumpy mooncates following them, grambling how they were supposed to mentor two such block-headed girls.

"Trust me, even I was unable to prevent some of Usagi's more embarrassing stunts and even participated in some of them. But we always helped when the other was in need," Naru told her.

She didn't want to tell them, but last night she'd had a nightmare. In it, she'd dreamed that while the others had gotten their powers, she hadn't. Usagi had drifted further and further apart from her, until they'd become strangers to each other. That was when she'd woken up and thanked fortune that she was allowed to stand at her friend's side, even in the face of monsters. It was way better than losing her as a friend.

Shaking of these bad thoughts she added "That reminds me, I should tell you the one with the chocolate pudding from several years ago..."

"NO! Not that one! Naru, please, have mercy!" Usagi pleaded, remembering that embarrassing incident all to well; especially the severe spanking she'd gotten from her very angry mother as a result from it. No need that Minako should learn of it.

"Hmmmm..." Naru acted for a moment as if she was considering it. "Well, OK. I'm not that mean." _That, and my own mother hadn't been thrilled, either,_ Naru silently added.

"Oh, pooey," Minako complained. Just when she was about to learn of an embarrassing secret. "Nah, can't have everything... Hm, wonder if Rei's will be there? She didn't sound too happy."

"Oh, I can imagine." Usagi wouldn't tell them that she'd learned of Rei's stunt with the Shinto wedding gown. No need to make Rei mure grumpy than she already was.

Artemis could only shake his head while listening to them. "I wonder if Pluto made a mistake. Allowing Minako and Usagi to interact for now only had the effect of making them a huge problem for both of us."

Luna could only agree. "At least before I could get Usagi to do things. But now... Lazy and lazy meet each other. How comes that we both are punished with such difficult charges?"

"It could be worse." He then heard a fit of girly giggling. "It is worse..."

"Look at this guy with the flowers. What a dork!" Minako told Usagi and Naru, pointing at a man walking towards an apartment building, holing tied-together flowers. The man was of short growth, barely Usagi's hight, was already balding and obviously a foreigner.

"Oh, you shouldn't say that," Naru lightly scolded her but stopped giggling when seeing at which apartment door he was knocking. "Wait, that's the apartment of Ms. Akiyama. Don't tell me..."

"...that HE'S her fiancé?" Usagi completed in horror. That's was not how she'd imagined that German who'd marry her.

Silent, the watched what would happen next. To their surprise, the door was yanked open and the woman was barely recognisable as Ms. Akiyama, with her hair loose, her glasses missing and wearing an expressing that was screaming that anyone coming too close would risk trouble. Her fiancé was obviously put off by it as well.

He tried to talk to her, but she hissed that she was still busy with making a wedding gown to make sure she'd win a competition so that she could have a proper wedding instead of a small-time excuse, and that he shouldn't come back until she was done, before slamming shut the door. Her fiancé dropped the flowers onto the doormat and walked away, asking himself what had happened to her.

"What happened to her? That's not like her at all!" Usagi finally said, shocked at how the soft-spoken and shy woman had turned into such an obnoxious person all of a sudden.

"I fear that it could be more than that." Looking down, they saw Luna looking sceptically at the apartment building. "It is especially suspicious, so we should get Ami so that she can scan the building with her computer."

"You think the Dark Kingdom got to her?" Naru asked, looking concerned at the closed door.

"Only one way to find out."

* * *

_...the next day..._

"You know, it's mighty convenient that the bad guys always plot in our neighborhood. Just the other side of the city, and we'd never learn of it," Ranma sarcastically commented while leaning against the wall outside of the chapel.

The others had to admit that he had a point.

It was rather strange that all the activities of the Dark Kingdom were happening in their neighborhood, almost as if the wanted to get defeated, although the idea was completely stupid. They were standing outside of the chapel right now and watching the competitors standing in a line because Ami indeed had found evidence that Ms. Akiyama was affected by dark energy, but until the Youma would hatch, they had no way to interfere at all.

"Beats me. I know they harassed me in England because I pretended to be the Moon Princess, but why they stick to our neighborhood is either some reason we don't know, or they are just huge idiots," Minako added.

"All good, but what are we supposed to do now? Being in the audience is fine enough, but we should also have one of us on the stage for emergencies," Rei reminded them, looking longingly at the line of women in their dresses, wishing it could have been her there.

"A good idea. One of you should use the disguise pen the conjure a dress and participate," Artemis suggested.

"Not me. If I accidently win the contest, my grandfather will go ballistic," Rei quickly blocked it off. No need for another humiliation.

"I can hardly explain it to my parents if it happens," Minako said.

"Me too," Usagi quickly added, despite wanting to do it.

"My mother would force me to tell the truth, should I accidently win," Ami defended herself.

"Add me to the list. Too many questions," Naru agreed.

"No way, my father would flood the house with his tears, should he learn of it," Akane dismissed it.

"I'd rather drop dead!" Ranma defiantly said, crossing his arms, feeling insulted they'd even imagine him wearing a frilly dress. He was a little envious that Mamoru was safe from this idiocy.

Everyone looked to Makoto, who suddenly realized that as the only one living on her own, she'd have no problem should she accidently win with a faked dress. "Uhm... guess it's up to me? What am I supposed to do?"

Luna made the disguise pen appear. "Just hold it high and will it to give you a disguise of your choice. You only have to specify, what exactly."

"Well...OK. Here we go." Makoto hoped that it was as safe as they acted it was. Holding the disguise pen high, she imagined herself standing in front of the altar, wearing an expensive-looking wedding gown. Suddenly there was sort of a very bright light surrounding her for some seconds and then... Ranma was glad he didn't do it when seeing the frilly dress Makoto was wearing.

"I guess... it works," Makoto said, looking down at herself.

o

"You know, that really tastes like diabetes. If not for the danger, I'd stay far away," Mamoru told Ranma with unease, while watching the competition from the audience ranks.

"Yeah, there's so much girlyness in the air that it probably wouldn't even take water for me to change," Ranma replied with a grimace. It was worse than he'd imagined. "That some men visit these things willingly is beyond me."

Ranma then felt Ami's hand squeezing his own. "Try to treat this like an ordinary challenge. I know you dislike these kind of events, but it's for a good cause." Truth to be told, she also felt a little unwell with how the other girls were gushing over all the wedding gowns. "You have that mask with you?"

"Yeah... no need to get into trouble."

Since the danger of the enemy getting revenge on his family was too big, he'd started carrying a ninja mask with him. It was good at hiding his ID from the monsters and the school uniform he was currently wearing was completely anonymus. Akane didn't need a mask, since she'd accepted that apart from that fluke last time, she wouldn't be terribly efficient against magic-powered monsters and therefore would more take a supportive role and help getting everyone out, once the panic would hit.

Meanwhile, Mokoto didn't feel all too good.

Sure, like many girls she's dreaming of having a wedding with an extravagant dress. However, standing in the row with these other woman after the presentations were done and while the judges were conferring which dress was the best and the crowd cheering; she hadn't imagined this. Add to it her bad conscience that she was essentially cheating with this summoned dress, as she believed in winning fair and square.

She was tuning out the prattling of the owned of the chapel, while looking around. Ms. Akiyama hadn't yet appeared, although they had seen her leave her apartment. They had however spotted her fiancé standing in the crowd. It seemed the desperate man wondered as well what was going on and hoped for answers. Then she was pulled out of her thoughts when the judges called for attention.

**"Ladies and Gentlemen, the final verdict is here! And the winner of the big prize is... MAKOTO KINO!"**

Mokoto felt like sinking into the ground. Winning by cheating was not what she wanted. She sincerely hoped that her blush of embarrassment would be mistaken for modesty.

"I protest!"

Everyone looked to the staging area where all of a sudden a woman had appeared. A woman wearing a nightmarish black wedding gown that would more fit to Elvira. The most disturbing thing however was the fact, that her skin had turned as white as chalk and there was a dangerous glint in her eyes. That alone already was enough to send the crowd into unrest.

"Show's about to start! Let's get ready!" Mamoru told the girls and they raced to the back exit so that they could transform without any curious eyes. And while Akane got into position at the front door, Ranma got ready to get Makoto off the stage, since right now she was more of a sitting duck.

"Never will there be anyone with a dress more beautiful than mine! NEVER!"

_"The maximum energy level is reached!" Nephrite declared. "Emerge, Youma Black Widow!"_

"Ahhhhh!"

Now panic erupted when Ms. Akiyama was engulfed by black flames and dark smoke poured out of her. Most of the people didn't wait to see what it would turn into and ran out of the conveniently open entrance. The ones who didn't before, did so when seeing what the smoke formed.

It was a monster, with the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a huge spider; a truely disgusting sight. The disgust factor was turned up to eleven when it became apparent that the Youma also had a spider's eight eyes.

"Ooof!" Ranma had used the chaos to push Makoto behind the curtain and off-stage, but that didn't meant it had to be gentle.

"Come on, there's little time to lose," he told her, while taking of his jacket (his mother would kill him if it got damaged) and pulling the mask over his head. Mokoto grumbled something about it hadn't to be that rough, while pulling out her wand. Ranma didn't pay her grumbling any attention while storming back into the showroom... and stopped.

_Well, clearly a spider... and disgusting,_ Ranma thought when seeing the Youma shoot webbing from its rear-end. It looked as obscene as it was.

Sailor Moon seemed to have already gotten a taste of it, as Ceres was busy with using her sickle to cut her out of the webbing while the others wisely held their distance. To make matters worse, having eight legs made the monster capable of defending itself quite well, as it just swatted away explosive roses and magical attacks with them.

"Is that all you have to offer?" the Youma mocked, before... Judging by the hole this it burned into the floor, it had just spat acid at them.

"Damn it, regardless what we throw at it, it just swats it away with these legs! Just one good hit into its fat body..." Mars cursed. It seemed that having eight eyes enabled the Youma to be aware of all her surroundings.

"We need a distraction! Now!" Ranma called, looking to Mercury.

"I'm working on it!" Truth to be told, she'd hadn't used that particular magic since her first awakening, so she found it difficult to pull off creating a dense fog if it didn't happen on instinct. "I can't concentrate!"

**-Crac- **That was Tuxedo Mask's cane splintering against one of the Youma's legs. The destroyed cane however just dissipated and a new one appeared in his hands. "Stupid cane," he cursed, really wishing he'd get a sword instead. He simply didn't yet have enough power to summon it or his armour.

"Yuuuck," Moon complained when she was finally cut free. "Disgusting... Hey, can't you cut it with your sickle?" she then asked when seeing the weapon in Ceres' hands.

"I bet I could, but it would rip me to shreds with the other legs before I'd get the opportunity." She knew it was ironical that while she had an incredibly powerful weapon, it was short-ranged and she had no melee skills. And she didn't dare to throw it right now. "Watch out!" She barely pushed Sailor Moon to the side, before a splat of acid hit where they'd been a second ago.

The Youma meanwhile had a field day. Despite having to face a whole group of enemies, she was not concerned. Most of them obviously weren't trained in the art of combat and it was trivially easy to deflect their attacks while they -apart from the quite brave male- didn't dare to enter melee combat. Black Widow knew she should leave to deliver the energy to her master Nephrite, but she first wanted to have her fun.

Watching the scene, Ranma cursed. The monster wasn't even trying to fight seriously. It more looked like it just wanted to humiliate them before leaving. He however didn't dare to come close. The beast clearly would see him a mile away and its many libs stacked the deck seriously against him. Looking back to Mercury he saw that all the noise wasn't helping her to calm down. It was grotesque that while she by now could create frost attacks, a simple fog was more difficult at the moment.

Finally he decided to do something against it and held his hand onto her ears from behind, shielding them from all the noise. Mercury was startled for a moment, before she understood and tried to concentrate to remember how she'd created a fog the first time. The silence helped her to remember how she did it. Holding her hands in front of herself, she felt the energy take form.

"Huh? What's this?" the Youma wondered, when all of a sudden everything vanished in thick fog. "Damnit! Where are you? Where...uurrggh!"

Her screetching was stopped, when out of the fog, a yellow beam of energy slammed into her, cleanly going through her chest. Thanks to the fog, she hadn't seen it coming. Her howling however was a very good indicator of where she was, even through the fog, and a fireball hit her next, burning away all of her hair.

"Raahhhrg! Where are you pests?" she howled, the pain making her wild.

However, her enemies didn't show themselves. Instead she was pelted sith a lightning bolt and an exploding rose at the same time, ripping away four of her eight legs, as she hadn't had any time to react and deflect the attacks. Black blood oozed out of the wounds and it distracted her from happened next.

"Yaaaaah!" **-riiiiiip-**

Ceres had used the distraction and managed to get behind the monster to get in a got hit. However, how should she have known that it would rip open almost half of the spider-body? She felt the bile rising when seeing a disgusting mix of black blood and innards splat out of the huge wound and quickly retreated back into the fog.

Black Widow didn't care. She was no too much in pain to care. The glowing diskus that cut off her head seconds later finally released her from all pain. The fog lifted and everyone was treated with the sight of the Youma basting apart into a dust cloud.

"Guess that's it," Mask stated when looking at the pile of dust which was all that was left, then saw motion form the corner of his eyes. "Hey, look at that."

"Don't tell me he was here the entire time," Rei said when seeing Ms. Akiyama's fiancé running to the fallen woman. "He's either brave or suicidal."

In silence they then watched him frenetically asking an awakening Ms. Akiyama if she was all right. It took some seconds but then she bursted into tears, sobbing that she did remember how horrible she'd been to him. However, he did hold onto her, saying that it wasn't her fault from all what he'd seen.

The silence was broken when Artemis ah-ehmed. "While this is nice; better find a discreet place to turn back to normal and then act as if you've fled deeper inside. After all, the police can be here at any moment and we don't want them to ask unneeded questions."

They didn't need to be told twice when already hearing the police sirens outside.

* * *

_...some time later..._

"This was really generous of you, to give Ms. Akiyama and her fiancé your first prize as a gift. After all what they'd been put through, they more than deserve this huge wedding," Minako told Makoto with a bit of pride.

Makoto waved it off. "There was no way I'd keep it. Not after winning it by essentially cheating. It see it as compensation for all the trouble they'd had and hope they enjoy it."

After this little chaos and them thankfully only being delayed less than a hour by the police, they finally were free to go home. Taking a shortcut through the park, they felt that their good deed for the day was done and now they could relax. However, their wish remained unfulfilled when they heard amused crackling.

"Well, sonny boy. It looks like my great-granddaughter didn't lie when she told me that interesting things go on around you."

"Wha...?" Looking around, Ranma spotted something that... looked like a person. A quite old person leaning on a comically big walking cane and looking remotely female. "Ah, man... don't tell me that's already the next Youma."

"Youma? Looks more like a dried-up monkey... OUCH!" Rei stopped her snarking in mid-sentence when the cane impacted on her shin.

"Show more respect towards your elders!" The old woman then addressed the group. "You've already met my great-granddaughter Xian-Pu. I'm Khu-Lon, a matriarch of Joketsuzoku, and you girls will enter interesting times."

Despite no malice in this statement, the girls suddenly felt that they actually would have hard times ahead of themselves.

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"Ranma's Woes"**_

**Notes:**

**Again sorry. I tried to cram too much into one chapter and it suffered from it. Next chapter will deal mostly with Ranma and Ami in return.**

**I'll admit it right away that Ranma's legacy got inspired by "Gabriel Knight" and I also reference it in the scene, as well as "Castlevania".**

**And it looks like the girls just got someone to make their lives miserable.**


	13. Ranma's Woes

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

Finally a chapter where Ranma again is the focus and Ami also gets a good amount of screentime. Don't expect action, this is a chapter for character-building.

**Sorry for the LONG wait! My personal life had become rather hectical shortly after the previous chapter and things became rather chaotic. End result: I got a complete creative breakdown and couldn't write anything until the start of May, when it finally returned to me. Additionally, that this chapter mainly has character scenes slowed it down even further.**

**Note that specific notes are at the end of the chapter, to avoid spoilers.**

* * *

**Chapter 12: Ranma's Woes**

"When I took up this hero business, I had imagined it somehow being like in these spy movies. Strange how instead of some ultra-secret lairs, we're just going to a Chinese noodle restaurant," Mamoru dryly commented while they stood in front of said building.

They'd at first been reluctant to follow this old woman, who'd claimed to be Xian-Pu's great-grandmother, until she'd openly admitted that she already was in town for several days and had used the time to watch them. She'd added that considering how ridiculously easy it had been to discover their secret, they should be a little more careful where to change in the future.

"Isn't that kind of clichè?" Ranma added, wondering why someone would want to prove a stereotype right.

"Sonny, that's actually the best way to hide. No one would find this suspicious in any way. And we are not yet open anyway," Khu-Lon said in slight amusement while unlocking the front door.

Entering, they got the next surprise. Not that they found Xian-Pu sitting in the dining area, obviously waiting for them. After all it was to be expected that she'd be present as well. No, it was what she looked like. Compared to the Chinese outfits they'd seen her wear, what she was currently wearing... It was a conservative, gray school uniform that looked very alien on her. Judging by her expression, she wasn't happy about it, either.

Looking up, her expression lightened a bit but she still looked as if having bitten into a lemon. "At least something to make my day better from the bust it had been up to now."

Khu-Lon rolled her eyes. "We've already talked about this once, great-granddaughter. So swallow your pride and take it like the warrior you are." She then looked around. "Where is the boy?"

"Out. I sent him away to get the last things we need. No way I'd have him around to try and impress me. That's always so depressing to watch," Xian-Pu said.

That was finally when one of the girls lost patience. "Ok, stop, stop!" Rei said, holding up her hands. "Start from the beginning. What's going on?"

"That will take a while..."

And so they did explain.

Essentially, when Xian-Pu had returned to the village (thankfully, returning took much less time), the elders had been about to rip into her for essentially abandoning her mission and returning with empty hands, until she'd shown them the crystal orb Pluto had given her for delivery. They had taken one look at it, before taking it from her and then the whole council of elders had retreated into the meeting hall to take a closer look at it.

As Khu-Lon added, the orb had pretty much shown them what Xian-Pu had been shown. Should she have continued her vendetta, there would've been catastrophic consequences, turning the entire world into a dark place. To their surprise, after that was done and they'd recovered from these horrible pictures, a woman with long, green hair had appeared and went on to explain the situation to them, before asking them if they were willing to let the matter drop.

The elders did drop the matter. However, having been scared completely shitless by what they'd seen, they'd even offered their support and the woman who called herself Sailor Pluto had given them a knowing smile, as if she'd expected this.

Of course, pulling it actually off was laden with several complications.

First, Mu-Tsu, Xian-Pu's unwanted but otherwise harmless suitor, had complained nonstop when he'd heard that Xian-Pu would leave again, this time for the long term. He'd become obnoxious enough that Khu-Lon had felt it'd be easier to just let him go as well, much to Xian-Pu's dismay. Next of course was the fact that they needed official papers. As much as she hated it, Khu-Lon had been forced to hand out some hefty bribes in order to get everything needed in reasonable time. And once they'd finally been in country, the Chinese embassy had caused trouble, much to Xian-Pu's annoyance.

"They said I'm school-age and have no excuse, so I'm forced to go to the Chinese school in Tokyo together with all these arrogant sons and daughters of diplomats and businessmen who treat me like a country-bumpkin," Xian-Pu ranted, her frustration pouring out. "Imagine my surprise when I learned that Mu-Tsu has already finished school early."

"Uhm, excuse me," Makoto interrupted her ranting. "But who exactly is Mousse? You just called him an unwanted suitor."

By now Xian-Pu was used to foreigners butchering her name, so it didn't surprise her that other names got a goofy pronunciation as well. "A boy from our village who for years now has the strange idea that we're meant for each other. He's too stubborn to admit to himself that this isn't the case and his habit of not wearing his glasses doesn't make it better."

Khu-Lon sorted. "He's blind in more than one way and I still wonder how he managed to master his fighting style in the first place."

"Stop, before that goes any further!" Ranma interrupted, disliking where this was drifting off to. "So, you're here to help. How do you plan to do that?"

"Yes, after all we should now talk business."

Aside from the elder, everyone jumped up, startled. Seeing Pluto stand there, pushing the button that lowered the shades over the front window, they groaned that she should stop doing that. Well, aside from Makoto, who hadn't seen her before and now eyed her in curiosity.

"So you're the lady in charge?" she asked.

"I wouldn't call it that. While I do help you all to find your way, I'm not so arrogant to think I can order you around constantly." Pluto then looked to the elder. "Now that we are gathered and secure of our privacy..." She looked to Xian-Pu. "She needs to know as well."

Xian-Pu looked up. This involved her as well? It was news to her. "I do?" she wondered. She hadn't been told at all what their purpose would be, as her great-grandmother had been very tightlipped about it. Perhaps she now would get some long overdue answers.

"Oh yes, child, you do." The old woman then addressed the girls. "Our support is to make sure that you girls won't get killed by your inexperience in anything combat-related."

"You mean you want to make us warriors like Shampoo?" Usagi asked, as she couldn't imagine herself to ever be on this level.

"Don't be stupid. It would take many years to reach that level of skill, as sonny boy here obviously already knows," she dismissed the idea. "We can't do wonders after all, so it'll be among the lines of giving you basic training... Amazon style. And since I'm obviously no longer in my prime, my great-granddaughter will assist me in this task."

"Something tells me that we won't like this at all," Naru said carefully.

The nasty smile on Khu-Lon's face would have been answer enough. "Oh, trust me, you won't."

"You know what she's talking about?" Rei asked Pluto.

"Oh yes, I actually do," she told the girls with some amusement in her voice. "Trust me, you won't like this at all and curse me for getting you into this. Prepare for lots of embarrassment and protesting muscles."

"Sadist..." Minako said under her breath. She didn't like at all how that sounded while the others paled a bit.

"What about me? Am I included?" Akane asked. She was literally itching to have a competent teacher who could teach her some new things, regardless how embarrassing their teaching methods.

Khu-Lon shook her head. "Sorry, girl, but you are WAY ahead of them and already know quite well how to defend yourself. However, I believe you have lots of potential and therefore I have made other... arrangements."

"Other arrangements?" Now Akane was curios. What could the old woman mean?

"I've used my connections to find a martial arts teacher who can actually teach you new things. We've had some associations in the past when she worked in Hongkong and now that she's married, she's settled down in a neighboring district as a teacher of the martial arts. Trust me, she is really good and her husband is a master of his art," she told Akane, seeing the excitement on the girl's face.

"What about me? I think I don't really fit into what you plan to do?" Mamoru asked, having a feeling that this wouldn't include him.

"Sorry, sonny, but there are two reasons why we can't. For one, our training methods don't mesh well with your fighting style. Second, I know that you specialise in sword fighting besides your magic. I'm bad at it and Xian-Pu specialised in blunt weapons. Also I doubt Mu-Tsu will teach you, as he's suspicious of any male in Xian-Pu's vicinity," she explained to Mamoru, who looked rather disappointed.

Truth to be told, there was a third reason she didn't want him there, as their training methods would make a mixed-gender group completely impossible, although she wouldn't say that aloud. It was better for everyone involved that it would stay a pure girl group.

"Perhaps..." Ranma, who up to now had been quiet, finally spoke up. "I have to ask Mom, but considering everything I've heard from her, she could show you some impressive stuff with the sword. However, that's totally up to her."

"Interesting that I didn't think of it," Sailor Pluto commented. "But Ranma is right, his mother has won several prices in the women's divisions of Kendo tournaments. She knows what she is talking about. Hopefully she's willing to help out."

"Good, and that leaves... you," Khu-Lon said, pointing to Ranma. "I was quite impressed when I was told about your exploits and your skill."

"Yeah, so?" Ranma wondered, not very good at hiding his pride.

"I have a special offer for you. As I was told that you play an integral part in this bid to save the world, I offer to train you personally. Our people know strong and powerful techniques that I can teach you to greatly enhance your battle abilities," she told him.

Now Ranma was all ears. "The way you tell me this, there has to be a catch."

"Ah yes... Of course there is one. What I offer to teach you are things that have stayed within the tribe for many generations. Before I teach you however, you first have to prove yourself worthy of it," Khu-Lon explained.

"So, what do I have to do? Rip out a tree?" Ranma asked, wondering what kind of test he would actually have to pass.

"Nothing that dramatic," she crackled, then gave him an unsettling smile. "I do know of your little condition. In order to prove that you have the needed strength of will, you have to stay a girl for a whole week, being locked into that form by me."

Ranma barely held back a groan. Why that of all things? "Any reason for that?"

"My great-granddaughter told you that warriors in our tribe are exclusively women. So in order to satisfy the needed proof that you are their equal, you have to pass this test," Khu-Lon explained, before adding "I know, sounds completely stupid, but that's the rules."

"Any side-effects?" It seemed Ranma didn't mind this test.

"You just have to avoid warm water, as it'll feel as if it's boiling to you," she cautioned.

Setsuna didn't betray anything, but that wasn't exactly the truth. In reality she had cooked up this excuse after taking a closer look at Ranma. She and Khu-Lon had agreed that Ranma could only benefit from it. Should he not manage to last the week, Khu-Lon would tell him the true reason and she'd teach him anyway. The young man had some issues, and the only way for him to face them was to force him.

_I hope he knows what he's getting into,_ Ami thought, while observing Ranma agree to these conditions.

She didn't think of Ranma as weak, but what she knew about him also gave her concern that being forced to live as a girl for a whole week without the option to bail out - as this would mean losing his training - would put too much stress on him. Ranma after all was male in spirit and soul. He was fine as long as he had the option to turn back, but taking that away could have bad consequences on his psyche.

Remembering that something would be in store for her as well, she added _I hope I know as well what I'm getting into._

* * *

_...two days later, Sunday..._

"I told you what you are getting into, so no more complaints!" Khu-Lon barked. "Be glad that I have such a big heart and only drive you to your limit and not beyond it."

The girls really hadn't expected it to be like this, although they should have been warned when she'd mentioned the ways of the tribe to harden girls. They'd expected it to be exhausting, but nothing like this! The old crone was almost literally putting them through the grinder until all of their muscles were hurting a lot. For girls who'd done little in the ways of sports before in their lives, this was pure torture.

Right now they were doing push-ups and they already felt their arms being ready to fall off.

"This... all ... is... normal stuff?" Rei groaned.

This not only meant the fact that they were pushed to their very limits. They'd been downright shocked when Khu-Lon had told them to strip down, since traditionally the girls of the village did their basic hardening training in the buff as they would first have earn the loincloth that would be granted with the more advanced training. They'd little choice but to comply, as since they were working in the basement, there wouldn't be even the excuse of peeping toms.

They envied Makoto. The strong girl had quickly been singled out by the elder, who said that she wouldn't need basic training and did right away go to the advanced level with Xian-Pu. Both girls were wearing said loincloth and nothing else. At least they were wrap-around loincloths, since all the movement caused the cloth hanging over the front and aft to move a lot, and that made sure their crotch and cleft of the butt stayed covered.

"S-sensei... I..." Usagi started to pale and as if on command a wooden bucket appeared in front of her.

Usagi tried to throw up, but only some stomach acid was coming up. No wonder, since the harshness of the training caused them to lose the contents of their stomach pretty quickly, so there wasn't much left to come out. At least they were allowed to wait a bit until their sick spell had passed, before getting back to work.

It had been hours already and all of them were covered in a thick layer of sweat and smelling revolting. At least this made the lack of clothes reasonable. And considering this was only day two, they dreaded what future training days would look like. Suddenly being a hero wasn't that great any longer for some of them, since it now also involved hard work.

"Ok, that's it for today. Hit the tub!" Khu-Lon called right then, ending today's session.

That was perhaps the one thing they mostly looked forward to. They had no idea how the Amazons had managed to get a wooden tub big enough for eight persons down into the basement, but they didn't complain. The old woman must be putting something into the warm water that eased their muscle pains and relaxed them. After getting out of the tub, the only thing they'd feel was being hungry and they'd eat in the restaurant upstairs.

"Ahhhh... That's so much better!" Ami sighed, while sitting in the warm water. She and Usagi had been hit the hardest by the training and it showed.

"Four days a week... Wonder if we survive this," Naru added, while undoing the band in her hair.

"You're still complaining?" Xian-Pu asked in disbelief. "You know great-grandmother could've been much harder on you."

The girls did remember. The old woman had told them that she'd briefly considered training on each day, but dismissed the idea as she wanted them to still have a social life. That still meant four days a week. Monday and Tuesday after school and Saturday and Sunday from early morning until noon. At least they didn't have to lie to their parents, as a 'sports group' was close to the truth.

"I've gained new respect for you," Rei admitted to Xian-Pu. "Imagining you're doing this stuff for years, I have to admit I underestimated you. You must be made of really stern stuff."

"Being a strong fighter is good... Yet it helps little when someone puts a bullet through your head," Xian-Pu reminded then, remembering the fate of her village. "That taught us to not be so arrogant about our powers."

Feeling that she was right, Makoto added "I know what you mean. While we are more durable due to our magic, I sincerely doubt we'd survive things like getting hit by a tank grenade or being run over by a train."

"Not entirely," Ami added. "We can use protective magic in a group efford to shield ourselves. But that's only temporary for some minutes at top."

"Doubt we can do this right now," Naru said, then stretched to get a knick out of her back. "It's hard to do when we have to apply learning by doing for our magic."

"You know... I wonder why that guy still isn't talking to us. He just gives us the silent treatment all the time," Minako wondered, meaning Mu-Tsu with it.

It was true, the Chinese boy was strangely silent and never said a word to them when they were upstairs in the restaurant. They had no idea why he acted this way and his face was hard to read thanks to his thick glasses. It even puzzled Xian-Pu, as normally he'd have by now tried at least one attempt to impress her. She wondered what he was planning that he was this defensive.

"Strange guy... I've seen him when he 'd been cleaning his glasses. He actually looks quite good..." Makoto said, already sounding as if she was far away with her thoughts.

Leaning back and closing her eyes, Ami tuned out the other girls discussing if Makoto had a crush, while thinking about Ranma. Ranma for now seemed to have taken being locked as a girl not especially hard, apart from a certain annoyance she was radiating. However, Ami was unsure how much of it was an act. Ranma after all seemed to be the type who would bottle up these things deep inside.

To make things worse, school tomorrow would be the first real test. Everyone would know she couldn't turn back for some time and Ranma was excused from all sports activities - after all using the locker room would be a tad difficult for the time being. She had no idea how Ranma would react to how others would see her being locked as a girl. Ami felt she should prepare for the worst.

_Ranma, please don't try to put up a brave front and ask for help when you need it,_ she silently wished.

o

"I feel quite honored that I can help you, Chibia-san," Nodoka formally told Mamoru, while they entered the Kendo hall.

Mamoru had to admit that it was quite a change from what the woman normally looked like. Nodoka Saotome looked very different in her Kendo uniform. While she looked like a proper lady in what she was normally wearing, she now more looked like a lady of war, something that instilled quite a bit of respect in him and obviously other people as well. Also, that she was allowed to use an entire training room for herself spoke volumes how respected she was in the local Kendo community.

"No, I'm glad that you give me your valuable time," he answered.

To be frank, he felt that his old Kendo uniform from his highschool years felt a little tight in some places and it also smelled suspiciously of chemicals used in closets to kep out moths. He hadn't used it in some time; since he'd shifted his focus from Kendo to european-style fencing. It had been a bit embarrassing to have to ask if she had spare training bokken, as his own had been beyond repair thanks to the incident that had caused him to shift focus. Thankfully she was understanding.

"My time is not that valuable. During this time of the day I would have little to do. Also, I think that helping in such a noble cause as saving the world is far more important," she however told him.

Mamoru couldn't help but to admire such selflessness. "I hope you don't take offense that I forgot quite a bit of the rituals, since it has been some time."

Nodoka shook her head. "While I do put emphasis on such things, these are not normal circumstances and it would be more useful to cut to the chase and go right to the lessons." She then looked to the other person in the room. "My son also would probably become bored if we re-enact all the proper Kendo etiquette."

Looking to Ranma, Mamoru couldn't help but to notice that she looked somewhat impatient. "You're really sure you want to practice with us?"

"Yeah," Ranma said, while balancing her bokken on one finger. "My old man never put much emphasis on weapons. He says that it's a weakness to be too dependent on these. I just know the basics."

The locking technique hadn't been that bad, although Khu-Lon had been right, warm water felt like boiling one, meaning she could only take cold baths. She'd also discovered more about the rules of her curse. Fluids that came from her body didn't count and it explicitly was skin contact that'd start the change. The area around her mouth and the inside of her body wouldn't trigger anything, which was a relief to know.

Ranma would never say anything, but she didn't feel all too well. This was day two of the week locked as a girl, and she already had second thoughts, though she would never admit so. Her sleep had become uneasy and she was unable to pinpoint, why. She also felt a strange uneasiness, as if something was wrong. Trying to distract herself hadn't worked out and with Ami being busy with her own training, not even her girlfriend's presence was granted to her.

Something was already stirring in her sub-consciousness, something she didn't like at all and tried to push back into the shadows, as it didn't fit into what she thought of herself. Ranma was experiencing the classic conflict of what went on in the head and what went on in the heart. In her head she'd logically accepted that the curse would stay for the rest of her life. In her heart however, she had never really come to terms with what this meant, nor had she emotionally accepted it.

"Ranma, is something wrong?" Nodoka asked, looking a bit concerned.

The last thing Ranma right now wanted was her mother babying her. She didn't want any pity. "No, all is well. Why do you ask?"

Nodoka outwardly accepted this answer, yet she couldn't help to be concerned. She felt that Ranma had entered this trial to hastily. She knew her son felt ready for everything, that was part of who he was. However, deep down she knew that this would be his hardest test yet. All her observations told her that Ranma had never truly accepted his curse, despite how indifferent he tried to act about it. Until now, Ranma had been lucky that circumstances had kept him from confronting the issue. However, it looked like Ranma's luck had now run out.

_I don't want to see you get hurt, my son. Please jump over your shadow and ask for help when you need it,_ she silently pleaded, while starting the lesson.

Mamoru also noticed during the lesson that Ranma was different from normal. Sure, he'd only met Ranma several times, but the difference was plain visible. Normally, Ranma was relaxed, but now Ranma looked as stiff as a board, as if something was putting her on the edge. He could guess what it was, but felt it wasn't his place to say anything.

After all, it would surely hurt Ranma's pride if someone would intrude into these matters.

o

_This seems to be it,_ Akane thought, while looking at the martial arts school in front of her.

The building looked a bit out of place in this district, as it built traditionally, the wooden construction a sharp contrast to the concrete buildings surrounding it. Looking at the dojo sign near the entrance, she read "Hadouken-Style School of Martial Arts". She had no idea what this exactly meant, but she was sure she'd find out soon enough. Hopefully this school would hold what the old woman had promised.

Entering, she went right to the reciption desk, where a young man was checking some records. "Excuse me. My name is Akane Tendo, an oppointment with the master of the dojo was made for me."

"Ah, yes. Master Takahashi is already waiting for you. The changing room is over there. He wants you to change into your training gear and then meet him inside the training hall," the young man said, after checking the appointment book.

_Wonder what he will be like..._

Some minutes later, Akane entered to training hall, trying to find the master. It didn't take long when she spotted someone appoaching her. His white gi made him stand apart from anyone else and the red-white Rokudan belt left no doubt about his status. His red headband looked a bit unusual and she was surprised how young he was. He looked to be just in his early thirties, no older, which was really young for a master.

"Ah, Ms. Tendo, very pleased to meet you. I am Ryu Takahashi, the master of this dojo," he greeted her friendly and without any formality, which was another surprise.

Since she hadn't expected someone actually younger than her father, Akane needed a bit to respond. "I-I'm honored. I was told your wife could help me to further my skill."

"Ah yes, the old mummy told us." Seeing Akane's shocked look at this disrespect toward Khu-Lon, he laughed. "She won't mind as long as you can prove you can back up your words with skill. Come..."

Following him, they walked to the far end of the hall, where a woman was currently turned away from them. Her brown hair was put into two ox horn buns and her frame was very unusual. While she had a very feminine built, her legs and hips were packed with muscles, which already told Akane that her style was mainly based around usage of the legs.

"Chun-Li, dear, your student is here," the master called to his wife.

She turned around and Akane couldn't help but to gasp. There was little doubt that the woman was in the late stage of pregnancy, judging by the huge bulge, yet she didn't seem to be hindered in the slightest by it. She had noticed Akane staring at the obvious and chuckled a little at her expression.

"I- I didn't know you were..." Akane stammered. She after all hadn't expected her teacher would be in such a condition.

"Don't think I'm made of glass just because I'm expecting." Chun-Li told Akane. "The little one never complained and my doctor was surprised how well I'm taking pregnancy and gave me a short list of taboos, including direct hits there."

"To be honest, this doesn't surprise me, as you've always been a tough cookie. After all, I seriously doubt that a frail princess could have defeated General Bison once and for all," Ryu commented and then smiled at the look his wife was giving him.

Akane was a little confused by why they were talking about and mentioned a madman who'd died three years ago. "Ehm..."

Her expression softening, Chun-Li looked to Akane. "Don't worry, my husband will be the one who trains your attack powers. My job will be to improve your defense and you can hardly accidentally hurt my little one when you have to defend yourself constantly."

Akane gulped hard. This didn't sound good at all.

* * *

_...Monday..._

The school week had started yet again, and mostly things were as usual. However, there was one difference and it aroused the interest of the students.

At first only few had noticed, but as the school day slowly dragged on, more students started to notice that Ranma Saotome didn't bother with turning back to a boy. Indeed, seeing as she stayed a girl the entire time was slowly starting rumors, even before noon. Of course not while Ranma was present, as this wouldn't be healthy, but it was rather suspicious since Ranma usually would change back at the earliest opportunity.

Ranma of course noticed and it didn't help to improve her mood.

She already was a bit short-tempered because her uneasiness had grown and her sleep had been very uneasy and disturbed by things she didn't want anyone to know, resulting in her still being tired, as if she hadn't slept at all. To add to it, a simple remark from Genma this morning had been enough to almost make her bash in his head. Ranma had been a bit scared how easy she'd lost her temper with him, as normally his comments were promptly ignored.

Her friends in class watched her in concern during geography class, the last one before lunch break. Ranma hadn't spoken to them at all, which was troublesome on its own. They hadn't seen her since Friday, not even Ami as after the exhausting training they went right home, and the difference in behavior was pretty obvious, as the normally easy-going Ranma now looked pretty annoyed at her surroundings. And the other students with their gossiping were not helping at all.

The teacher addressed the students right then. "Now, class, pay attention to the next page, where some of the matriarchical tribes..."

**-snap-**

Everyone looked to Ranma, seeing that the sound was her snapping a pencil in two in her hand. Ranma herself noticed only then and quickly discarded the remains. She hadn't meant to do this, but her hand had squeezed on its own when a female-dominant tribe was mentioned.

"Is there a problem, Ms. Sao... I mean, Mr. Saotome?" the teacher quickly corrected himself, but it was too late.

Ranma for a moment wished she could just leave, but quickly suppressed it and said as indifferent as possible "No, I just wasn't careful enough."

The teacher accepted this and went on with the lesson, yet everyone else wasn't so easily fooled. They didn't know what was going on, but saw that it would be a bad idea to ask Ranma about it. After all there was no need to tempt fate.

In the back row, Ukyo was arching an eyebrow, wondering what this was about. Not that she cared in any way about Ranma, but this was slightly suspicious. After recent events, she didn't doubt that strange things were happening near Ranma. That actually had been a good motivation to stay away from him, as she valued her health, since said things tended to become violent.

Yet even she wondered why "macho-king Saotome" (she'd come up with this nickname some time ago) was staying a girl. She wouldn't ask - no need for another humiliation - but it did look very strange.

Finally, class ended and everyone left for lunch break.

Ami was leaving class, looking for Ranma. Normally he'd meet her on the corridor and then walk into the yard together with her. However, there was no sign of Ranma. Instead, she saw her other friends approach her, looking uneasy. That alone was enough that she could make an educated guess what was wrong, since Ranma had been unusually irritated that morning when she'd arrived at the Saotome home.

"Where's Ranma?" she asked.

"S..he already left for lunch," Akane said, quickly correcting herself on the pronoun, despite Ranma's current gender.

"And before you ask, Ranma had been in a bad mood all morning. None of us dared to approach her between classes," Naru explained further.

"Oh dear..." Ami knew this meant that Ranma's bad mood from when she'd met her hadn't dissipated and instead must have become even worse. "I see if I can find her."

However, at first her search was fruitless, as Ranma wasn't found in the yard. Only then did she realise that she'd been stupid. Of course Ranma wouldn't want attention and look for a place where she could eat without interruption or being looked at. However, that this included separating from friends, and especially her, hurt a bit.

Using some logic, she did find Ranma on the school roof, being busy with wolfing down a sandwich. "Ranma, why did you leave?"

"Urghhhaa," Ranma made a choking sound, being startled by Ami, and then finally managed to swallow, before looking to Ami. "Ami... I... you see..."

Ami had no trouble to see that Ranma found it difficult to explain her behavior to her. "Ranma, is something wrong? You've been acting strange all morning and I'm beginning to worry that this test is taking its toll on you."

Ranma let out a shot, forced laugh. "No way that this can get to me. You should really know what I'm made of."

Ami looked rather sceptical. She did remember how Ranma had freaked out when having her first period. Back then Ranma had been pretty scared and confused and she bet this was the case now as well, only that Ranma was trying to hide it, since there were some things at stake this time. However, as much as she wanted to, trying to force help onto someone would have the opposite effect. She'd have to want Ami to help, which clearly wasn't the case right now.

"I can't force you to accept help. Just promise me that you come to me when it becomes too much," she asked Ranma.

"Not that I need to, but thanks for the offer," Ranma said with as much conviction as possible, which didn't say much.

Ami looked sceptical, but decided to not press any further. "Well... do you want some company?"

This seemed to take some of the gloominess from Ranma. "Yes, please! It's rather lonely up here and I hate people gawking at me."

Ranma felt guilty for lying to Ami, she actually felt miserable and some encouragement from Ami would have been great, but her pride was stronger. She also didn't want to burden Ami with her problems, since after all the girl already had enough on her plate with her own training. However, at least Ami's presence would make lunch break bearable.

Ami watched Ranma closely during the remaining lunch break.

Her keen eyes spotted not-so-hidden signs that while Ranma tried to act as normal as possible around her and even seemed a bit more relaxed around her, she actually was rather tense. Ami also noticed that Ranma always held a certain distance to her, wondering, why. Ranma was not like herself and she felt bad that there was little she could do until Ranma would ask for her help.

o

Ranma was aimlessly walking through Minato ward in the afternoon. It was the only thing she was capable of doing at the moment.

Since Ami had her own training, she couldn't be with her, which already had been like a ton of lead on her mood. Lying to her had also made her feel incredibly guilty. Also she simply couldn't concentrate on even the easiest training exercise, which had frustrated her to no end, not to speak ob being able to do her homework. And finally, the looks of concern her mother had been giving her were the final nail. She simply felt like suffocating in the house and had almost fled it. And that was where she was right now, with no plan how to spend the hours until the evening.

Ranma would never admit it to herself, but she was feeling more than just restless. It was some sort of fear that had managed to creep into her. Of course, rationally she could dismiss all kind of fears, as she knew that one way or another she only was lock as a girl for a limited time. But the world of emotions was hardly ruled by logic thought and irrational fears simply ignored logic.

_Karma is a bitch, _Ranma humorlessly thought, while walking down a road beside the train tracks. _That's probably for me acting as if all is fine._

It was not only that, but it seemed to her that everything around her was determined to add insult to injury, as if to rub under her nose that she currently was stuck as a girl. However, things could have been worse. That her curse was known to the whole school had been a double-edged sword. On one hand, everyone was now looking at her, having already guessed that she currently was stuck as a girl. However, it also made things easier.

_Just image... me being forced to wear a girl's uniform... _The thought alone was enough to almost make her sick.

If no one had known; all the stuff she'd have been forced into. She'd have had to endure always called 'Ms. Saotome', forced into all these things girls do at school, forced to use the girl's locker room (Ranma shuddered at the mere idea) and the girl's restroom...

_Oh, you have got to be kidding me! _she silently groaned when thinking about a restroom gave her body the idea to remind her that there was a certain issue.

Thankfully there was a public restroom close by, but Ranma bit her lip when being faced with a new dilemma. While no one at school blinked an eye at her using a stall in the boy's room (and no one was suicidal enough to peep on her), a public one was a different matter, as some bad experiences on the way back to Japan had taught her. In the end, her arching bladder made the decision.

Walking in, she saw in relief that no one else was present.

Entering a stall, she groaned. Of course she had to find a restroom that was using squatting toilets. She hated these things with a passion from the very first time she'd been forced to use one as a girl. For her that was another stone in the wall of humiliation that was being built around her. And just when she'd closed the stall door, she heard some girls - animatedly chatting ones at that - enter.

Ranma felt like vanishing into that hole in the ground.

Ranma was down with her nerves when leaving almost 20 minutes later. If it hadn't been awkward enough to listen to these girls constantly chatting from their stalls while they were all doing their business, something that had made her bladder cramp up and she'd forced herself to relax herself before anything would come out, it had continued while all of them were washing their hands and she felt lucky to have escaped alive. The stuff they'd been talking about was stuff that no male wanted to hear, mainly boys and girl stuff that made her neck hair rise.

That she'd been forced to endure all this girl-talk during such a private moment had been highly humiliating and now she was even more foul-tempered than before.

_Damn, pull yourself together! It's not like this is permanent!_ Ranma tried to tell herself while walking home. Right now she would even prefer her mother's looks of concern.

* * *

_...later, at night..._

Night had settled over Tokyo and the Saotome house was dark and peaceful. At least mostly, as one of its inhabitants was far from peaceful at the moment.

In her room, Ranma was stirring restlessly in her bed, sweating heavily, letting out groans of terror while her nightmares were torturing her without any mercy. What had been hidden during the day came out of the shadows during the night.

_..._

_Ranma knew something was seriously wrong, as everyone seemed to be staring at him. He'd started washing himself as usual, before using the bath house, but all the other men were now staring at him for some reason._

_Looking down, he - or better, she - gasped. She quickly used warm water... but it didn't work and she still was female._

_Looking around in panic, Ranma saw that the men obviously were not bothered by the sight. In the contrary, they seemed to enjoy it a lot, as the signs were undeniable. Scared, Ranma tried to get up and run away, but she couldn't move, while the other men, their faces strangely featureless, advanced on her._

_She screamed, and the dream changed._

_Now it looked like one of her usual wet dreams, as there was Ami lying on a bed, very naked. Ranma was very busy with undressing and then finally presented himself to her. Her smile told him that she was approving, but then she frowned._

_"Ranma, I could swear your appendage is shrinking." she told him._

_Looking down, Ranma saw in horror that she was right, his dick was staring to shrink into his body at an alarming rate, while his whole body slowly started to turn female. In panic, he tried to hold onto it, but to no avail and finally, she stood before Ami, who now no longer looked happy at all and shook her head in disgust._

_"I won't get involved with a girl."_

_The dream changed again._

_Ranma barely knew anymore that she'd ever been male. Her male body and spirit had faded away, leaving a 100 percent female Ranma, who acted the way. She enjoyed shopping for girly clothes, used generous amounts of make-up and had shunned her former art as too brutal. To make it short, she'd become a proper lady and her mother praised her to no end._

_Today had been a big day, and now was the wedding night and she saw her husband, who was wearing Ryoga's face..._

_..._

"AAAAARRRGHHH!"** -Sklllliiiirrrrr-**

Trashing around, Ranma was disoriented and something had broken but she had no idea, what. In her confusion she couldn't think straight and suddenly the light got turned on. Blinking, she saw her mother standing in the door, looking concerned. However, before her mother could say anything, a noise from the stairs distracted her.

"It's all right, husband. Ranma just had a nightmare, nothing more," she called to Genma, who still was out of Ranma's view. However, the steps that followed indicated that her father was walking down the stairs.

Looking around, Ranma finally spotted what had happened. Trashing around in her sleep and then violently waking up, she'd somehow knocked the bedside lamp off the nightstand and it had shattered on the floor. Nodoka had obviously spotted the broken remains as well but quickly held up a hand to stop Ranma from saying anything about it.

"Don't bother with it. I'll sweep it away in a moment." She then looked her into the eyes. "Son, what happened?"

There was no way she'd tell her mother what her nightmares had been about. It was way too embarrassing and she had no desire to be pitied. Locking away all emotions, she tried to look indifferent. "Just a nightmare, nothing to worry about."

Nodoka didn't believe it for a second. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah... No need for you to bother with it."

While leaving to get the broom, Nodoka couldn't help but to hope her son would overcome his pride soon. Ranma had not learned when it wasn't weakness to ask someone for emotional support, felt that it was girlish to do so. One thing where Genma had sadly succeeded. She felt helpless in knowing this was a disaster in the making.

* * *

_...at the same time..._

_"The Earth Kingdom values its loyal subjects. You four have proven to be loyal and yet always question when loyalty transforms into blind devotion. Thus you have earned the post of bodyguards for Prince Endymion fair and square."_

_"I couldn't wish for better companions. You have not only been companions during my travel to manhood, but also good friends."_

_"Deceit and falsehood are like a poison. They will destroy you utterly."_

_"We would never go against you."_

_"Trust, loyalty and honesty. I think that's most important."_

_"We are being called to the courtyard. I really wonder what this is about, since Endymion is currently on the Moon. You think it's again that nutty red-head noble?"_

_"Trust, loyalty and honesty."_

_"The king!" "We trusted you!" "A knife to the back!" "You bastards!"_

_"TRUST, LOYALTY AND HONESTY!"_

...

"Hmmm, what? Oh!" Nephrite needed a bit to realize that he'd fallen asleep in his chair while trying to scout the stars for a new target.

Not that he did have much success, the stars were denying him guidance and he knew that was because his mind simply couldn't find the needed peace in order to communicate with them. That actually was a problem since there was only one week left before Jadeite would initiate his big plan and make him look like an utter fool who couldn't even manage to harvest energy. Of course the pressure only resulted in further inability to question the stars.

"Well, here goes nothing." Giving up on trying to get anything done, he went to the balcony to look at the night sky above the brightly illuminated city of Tokyo.

Nephrite had never liked big cities that much, as the light pollution made it difficult to watch the night sky. He'd always preferred to have his home outside on the land, where nothing would disturb his observations like in the old... He shook his head, again he'd run into the trap of thinking that the old times had been real. What was wrong with him?

"Great, if this goes on, Queen Beryl will be displeased," he grumbled, cursing the reason why he felt unable to talk to the stars.

His dreams of recent had been strange. He hadn't thought much about the past before, but the feeling of something being wrong - a feeling he was unable to explain - had become stronger recently, seriously impacting his ability to read the stars. Nephrite had to wonder why now of all times he was so occupied with the past, especially since the dreams made no sense, as they showed him loyal to the Earth Kingdom, which had been a lie created by brainwashing.

And then there were these words... Trust, loyalty and honesty.

Nephrite wondered how a conversation with some random girl could have such an impact. As much as he wanted to pretend that nothing was wrong, he couldn't. Someone who consulted the stars wouldn't doubt that dreams could carry a meaning, especially if they constantly returned. He didn't know what was wrong, only that something was wrong.

And regardless what it was, it had decided to not leave him alone until he'd find the cause for it.

* * *

_...the next day..._

If it was possible, Ranma felt even worse than yesterday.

Her nightmares had robbed her of even thinking about sleep, resulting in her already being tired by the time school was out. The nightmares themselves had put a huge, black cloth on her mood as well. Her mood had been bad the entire day; and this was so obvious to everyone that no one had dared to approach her during school. That however hadn't stopped the looks and the whispering about her, causing her to get even more irritated.

To make things worse, she had actually tried to avoid Ami today, since she thought that Ami wouldn't really appreciate her presence until she could finally return to male.

While Ami had stated that she didn't mind the curse, Ranma had absolutely no idea if she'd think the same way when the issue would come up in their upgraded relationship. Ranma didn't know if Ami could like a girl as much as a boy, and she concluded that it most likely wasn't the case. It wasn't much of a problem as long as she could turn back, but right now that wasn't the case and it reminded Ranma that displays of affection right now had only happened while she was male.

That only added to her ever-growing feelings of insecurity, combined with the shame at how easily she was starting to fall apart after only days of being locked. This of course in return only made her more miserable. To this end, the Ranma Saotome aimlessly walking through the ward of Minato was a miserable creature right now.

_Why? Why? WHY?_ she wondered, feeling that this shouldn't have happened.

She'd thought it would be so easy, but instead it had turned out to be some sort of torture and she now understood why Khu-Lon had seen it as a test of strength; a test she was currently starting to fail on all accounts, as she doubted that she could manage another three days without going crazy, but her pride stopped her from giving up or asking anyone for help.

"Excuse me, can you tell me... YOU!"

Ranma was pulled out of her thoughts when hearing an angry scream from a voice she knew. There was Ryoga, looking ready to bash in her head. He was the last person she wanted to see right now, especially after last night's nightmare. She also didn't trust herself to not outright kill Ryoga in her current state of mind. She didn't want to risk it.

"Do you have any idea what I had went through? You'll pay for my humiliation!" he shouted, his fists shaking.

Ranma actually had a good idea what Ryoga was talking about, since Rei had told them about the pervert who could turn into a piglet. Boy, had she been angry once learning what kind of person Ryoga was. It seemed Ryoga had the ability to piss off anyone whom he came across. However, right now she was in no mood to deal with Ryoga.

"Get lost, Ryoga! I'm in no mood for dealing with you right now," she said and turned around to leave, since this clown would be unable to follow her after some meters.

"Stand still, coward!" Ryoga shouted and Ranma barely dodged an attack of that stupid umbrella of his. It seemed Ryoga wanted to get to the brawl right away. "Still good at running away, eh?"

The last thing Ranma right now wanted was a fight, fearing all her fuses could blow. "What part did you not understand? And if I remember right, I slaughtered you last time!"

"That was just a fluke! I wasn't ready!" Ryoga growled.

It seemed that Ryoga had decided to completely erase the lesson of that last encounter from his memory and had reset back to just pissing off Ranma in his stupid attempts to get his 'revenge'. Even then, almost anyone else could have seen it would be a bad idea to anger Ranma, but not Ryoga. After all, Ryoga wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed by far.

Jumping onto a wall, Ranma wondered how stupid Ryoga actually was. "I really don't have time for this shit."

"Again showing your cowardly ways?" Ryoga screamed and a hit from him cracked the wall, forcing Ranma to jump off to somewhere else.

Ranma was getting more pissed off by the moment. All the frustration and tension in her threatened to erupt into a storm of violence at any moment. "You really don't want to piss me off, Ryoga" she threatened.

Ryoga laughed darkly. "You coward, you hide behind being a girl! Seems you finally show your true colors and how weak you are!"

That had been the wrong thing to say, as it ignited Ranma's anger on exactly the very reason that she currently was in such a state. Ranma had no exact memory of what followed next, but it surely had to be rather brutal as it ended with a heavily bruised and bleeding Ryoga running away as fast as he could, constantly screaming in terror how being a girl had driven Ranma insane, leaving Ranma standing on the sidewalk, breathing heavy in anger.

Looking after him and then at her blood-soiled fists, Ranma felt like bolting as well.

_How could I lose control so easily?_ she wondered in concern, while cursing herself at the same time.

* * *

_...Wednesday, July 5th, Saotome house..._

Ranma didn't even feel like getting up, but felt there was little choice.

Last night had been even worse than the previous one. Instead of waking up from the nightmares, she'd been forced to go through them, regardless how big her terror had been. Her dreams had consisted of losing her masculinity forever, turning into a prissy girl and doing girly things. One nightmare had even included her walking around in a Senshi uniform. The worst ones were the ones where Ami turned away from her in disgust, saying that she could never get involved with a girl.

Ranma had went through the furo routine on autopilot and since her father wouldn't have her spar in the morning at the moment - after all Genma had smelled trouble and avoided getting burned by it - she was currently waiting for Ami to arrive while her mother was setting the breakfast table. And though Ami's presence should actually be a good thing, Ranma dreaded it now, as what she felt for her had turned into inner chaos.

Unable to sit still in the family room, she wandered around the house, until walking by a mirror in the hallway connecting the family room with the rooms further back on the ground floor. Looking at it, she grimaced, by now despising the girl that was looking at her in the mirror.

"Damn, I hate you," Ranma growled, meaning the curse with it.

_"Well, that's totally your problem as I won't leave,"_ she imagined her mirror-image replying, being so riled up that she didn't even find it strange she was arguing with herself.

"Everything was so much better before you showed up," Ranma accused her.

_"Oh, sure, being under the thumb of your old man, not having a real home and no friends is so much better,"_ her mirror-image returned sarcastically.

"You know what I mean," Ranma accused her.

Her mirror-image waved it off. _"Don't unload that on me, that's entirely your own fault. You had all time in the world to accept reality and come to terms with it, but noooo! You had to put it off until you have no choice!"_

"You damn..." Ranma growled.

Her mirror-image only laughed. _"What? Want to hate yourself? I'm that part of you that knows all the unpleasant truths. It's my job to remind you of them."_

Ranma felt her temper getting the better of her, despite how stupid it was to argue with a mirror. "What do you know?"

Her mirror-image gave her a knowing look. _"Well, I do know you think cute Ami isn't into the whole girl-on-girl thing..."_

"SHUT UP!" Ranma screamed, and took hold of the next possible object.

Meanwhile outside, Ami was approaching the Saotome house. After yesterday, which had been very uncomfortable, she was debating if she should approach Ranma. Despite having decided that this would be bad, she was starting to have doubts. It was simply heartbreaking to see how quickly Ranma's mental state had deteriorated. Yesterday had been so bad, she had even asked Khu-Lon for advice, but the elder had only said she should know what to do. That hadn't been very helpful.

She was about to knock on the door, when suddenly. "SHUT UP!"** -Wham- -Pkllliiirrr-**

That was Ranma! And the sound after it was that of breaking glass! Tossing out social norm she quickly ran around the house, where thanks to the warm weather the sliding doors of the family room were already open at the morning. While she did so, a mix of voices and running came out of the house and when she finally entered, Nodoka and Genma were looking rather concerned at the stairs that led upstairs.

"What happened?" Ami asked, dreading what it could have been.

"It was Ranma...he... he screamed at his own mirror-image and then smashed the mirror with one of my decorative desk statues before running upstairs," she told Ami, still a bit taken aback from what had happened.

Surprisingly, it was Genma who then took the word. "What are waiting for, girl?"

The message was clear, Ranma needed her NOW! Letting her book bag fall to the floor, she didn't waste a moment and ran up the stairs. Entering Ranma's room, she could see that Ranma was in a state close to breakdown. Ranma was sitting on her bed, very pale and shivering and yet still holding back any tears. It was frightening to see how less than a week locked as a girl had been enough to reduce Ranma, who normally was one of the bravest people Ami knew, to this. It was witness how much he'd repressed the whole issue.

Ranma looked up and Ami was taken aback at how much pain her eyes radiated. These blue eyes, that normally were full of life, now were filled with sorrow. "A-Ami? Please... go..." she shakily said.

Ami however would not go. Not after seeing Ranma like this. "No, I won't."

"P-please!" Ranma pleaded. "It'd be better... for you. Just look... at me! Could you ever get... involved with a girl?"

_So that is why he's avoiding me,_ Ami realised.

It was true that she'd told Ranma that she wasn't bothered by his curse, but that had been before their relationship upgrade. And she'd never done anything of that sort with Ranma, while he was a girl, despite having some really interesting fantasies and dreams about girl-Ranma. Ami was sure this was only part of why Ranma was in this state, but it was the one issue she could right now do something about, as Ranma needed her now.

Sitting beside Ranma on the bed, she felt that now was the time to jump over her shadow and admit the true extent of her feelings to Ranma, even if it was a bit embarrassing. That she loved all of Ranma, boy and girl alike, was what she needed to hear right now and she'd have to give her undoubtable proof. Her decision made, she took hold of Ranma's head.

"Ami? W-what are you doing?" Ranma wondered.

"This."

Then, without hesitation, she pulled Ranma into a full mouth-on-mouth kiss. Ranma's eyes went wide at this forceful gestue and she quickly put her arms around Ami. Ami for her part was a bit surprised how easy it had been for her to kiss girl-Ranma, and she actually enjoyed it, as Ranma tasted a bit different as a girl. Both of them didn't want to stop it and it actually escalated over the minues it lasted, ending in a wild tongue-wrestling until finally both of them parted again.

Despite everything still putting her down, Ami's action, her actually kissing her while she was a girl, made Ranma's heart jump. "Ami... you- you actually do like me that way as a girl?"

Ami blushed a little. "Well, at first I was a bit embarrassed about it... I did have some dreams were we, well, with you as a girl... And then I started to realise that I like you as both, boy and girl." Ami paused before continuing "It's not girls in general, other girls don't make me feel like that, it's just you. I love Ranma, regardless if boy or girl, even though I needed a little to admit that to myself."

"Oh, Ami..." In relief, Ranma hugged her and Ami held her gently.

"Shhhh, Ranm. Tell me what is weighing on you. Let it all out. Share it with me..." She knew this from her mother whenever she'd felt down. Sharing your inner pain made it easier to bear it.

And Ranma did so. Hesitant at at first, it soon flooded all out of her. All her fears of losing her male identity, of turning into a girly girl and doing stuff that made her downright sick, her constant feeling that something was wrong and how she'd felt constantly humiliated over the course of recent days. The nightmares, her encounter in the restroom and how she'd nearly turned Ryoga into dead meat, she left nothing out, regardless how embarrassing. Ranma also didn't care any longer and was openly crying, the tears flowing freely, while admitting all this.

"Oh, Ranma..." Ami knew that a good part of these fears again came from a lack of information about girls, while some of it was Ranma being scared of things she felt she had no influence over.

Ranma herself felt worn out. It had felt so good to finally let out all of it and it indeed had made her feel somewhat better. "Ami... I'm so tired..."

"I won't leave you. Get all the rest you need," Ami gently told Ranma, while holding her. It took only a short time for her to fall asleep.

"I see he's in good hands with you."

Looking up, Ami saw Ranma's mother standing at the door. "I feared this would happen. Hopefully we can now start healing these wounds... Ehm, could you?"

Nodoka discreetly left the room and closed the door, while Ami tried to move Ranma and herself onto a more comfortable position on the bed. Walking down the stairs, she was greeted with the sight of Genma waiting. That in itself was new. Some time ago, Genma would have given off some rather nasty comments about Ranma's problems, but he was right now strangely silent.

"No comments?" Nodoka wondered.

"I try not to say anything. It'd come out wrong," Genma told her. "Although I do hope the boy gets better."

That was an unusual reaction from Genma, although he had started to act different ever since that incident with Neko. "I didn't expect to hear this from you."

"I'm not completely heartless, although don't expect me to coddle our son, wife. He needs to get better, especially now, so don't expect me to go easy on him," Genma told her.

She was surprised, When Genma had arrived, he'd been pretty much useless and throwing around platitudes. He still was a far cry from the Genma she once knew, but the change in his behavior was noticeable. He still was hard on Ranma when teaching him techniques, but had toned it down to more reasonable levels and no longer was doing things like insulting Ranma's masculinity. The change had started earlier, but it had become more pronounced after the Neko incident.

"I noticed before, Genma. What's compelling you to act this way?" Nodoka wondered, hoping she'd get an answer.

For a second, a look of thoughtfulness appeared on Genma's face, but quickly disappeared. He didn't want to admit that one factor in his change was guilt. Right now his mind was the clearest it had been in years and he felt by now guilty for some of his decisions that had negatively influenced Ranma's life, foremost the Neko-ken. Genma also felt a certain pride for his son that he was willing to fight against the forces of darkness and also found a suitable girlfriend - not a martial artist but at least still powerful.

And yet it also reflected light onto himself and suddenly the contrast to himself couldn't be more obvious. In light of Ranma's courage, his own inadequatity became painfully obvious. In the years of the training trip, he hadn't been very courageous; quite in the contrary. This realisation of his own faults had been painful. His pride was stopping him from telling Nodoka. For now he wanted to keep this to himself.

"I do have my reasons, wife. I'll keep them to myself for the time being," he told her, before walking to the breakfast table.

Nodoka had no idea what to think of this Genma. It had been easy to dislike him after his return from the trip, but now his behavior was confusing. Not that it was bad, she was glad he'd changed away from the spineless coward, but right now she didn't know what to make of it. Shaking her head, she went to the phone. She'd have to call Saeko to tell her that Ami needed to be excused at the school. And then she'd have to call the school herself to excuse Ranma for the day.

* * *

_...later that day, Hikawa Shrine..._

Ranma felt somewhat uncomfortable with being the center of attention, but Ami holding her hand was incentive enough to not try and bolt.

She'd woken up when it already was afternoon and Ami had then told her that the best way to ease her fears would be to actually show how unfounded most of them are, and for this they'd meet up with everyone at the shrine. Ranma hadn't been thrilled to reveal her fears to everyone else, but Ami was convincing in her own way and so they were sitting here in the back yard of the shrine, having just finished relating what had happened - of course minus some bits that were too private.

Ranma didn't like pity, but the way the others looked at her was less pity and more compassion. Surprisingly, it was Luna who broke the silence. "Oh dear, Ranma. For someone who has so many female friends, you still know so shockingly little about girls. I think we have to blame your upbringing," the mooncat gently told her.

"You told me you know that girls can be tough fighters and are not made of glass, but deep inside you still seem to have that image about girls in your head that your father forced into you for ten years," Akane added, finally speaking out what the others had suspected.

Ranma grimaced, remembering the Neandertal-style opinion on women her father had tried to imprint on her.

Akane then continued "Deep inside you still seem to think all girls turn into a pink, frilly, girlish nightmare, despite all your experiences. It's not that I accuse you of anything, it's just so deep inside that you can't help it. However, just look at me! As much as I hate to say, I'm certainly not what you call girly nor have I developed a passion for overly cute stuff. My room is so devoid of it, my oldest sister even wondered if something was wrong with me."

"Or take me," Makoto told Ranma. "I'm certainly the most feminine girl here, and yet I have so many masculine interests that girls at my old schools called me butch and a mis-happened boy. While I do on occasion like to dress up, I absolutely dislike these little princesses who act as if they own the school and think they should be worshiped."

"Take a look at me," Rei told Ranma. "I certainly proved to you that I'm not some helpless, little girl. Hell, my temper alone could incinerate lesser people. I also hate these girly magazines and love novels, and instead read manga that were written for boys."

Ami hesitated a moment, before she said "I think you already know how hard I work for good grades. That's certainly not like one of these brainless girls who just put everything into their good looks. You also won't catch me in frilly dresses. I tend to dress more practical."

Naru held up her hands. "Ok, I admit that I'm somewhat more girly, but don't put me into that corner. I absolutely hate the color pink and told my mother countless time I'd rather drop dead than wear anything too cute, like this rubbish with a Hello Kitty motif."

Everyone shuddered when this particular brand was mentioned, while Luna and Artemis looked offended at the mere mention.

That left Usagi and Minako. Both of them blushed a little and then looked away. Everyone knew why that was, since these two were the most girly of all of them, meaning that they could contribute little to reassure Ranma. Ranma in return could only shake her head that she'd fallen back into these thought patterns instilled into her by her father.

"Ranma, you see? Being a girl does absolutely not mean you are set to a certain behavioral pattern. Girls and boys can act like they decide they want to, even if some people think different. No one's mind is squeezed into one single mold just because of gender," Ami explained to Ranma, seeing that the explanation was already having the effect of reassuring her.

"However, there is one even more important thing... Despite a gender change, you stay Ranma! You're not suddenly having a personality change. Remember how I told you that your mind is male? That won't change. Your mind is so reinforced , your gender identity so certain, that even a gender change doesn't change it. Ranma, be honest: do you act any different when being a girl?"

Now Ranma felt stupid. "No... I don't. I still like and dislike exactly the same things. I act the same."

Ami gave Ranma a smile. "See? I don't actually expect you to overcome your fears overnight. However, let us help you, and it will be easier for you."

For the first time in days, Ranma gave a smile.

They didn't know they were watched.

"See, I told you he'd pass," Sailor Pluto said to Khu-Lon, while they both watched the scene from a tree, hidden from view. "You seriously underestimated him and in the end he was not too proud to ask for help."

"Yes... I thought he wouldn't make it. At least thankfully I don't have to give him this lecture. Having his friends help him will be far better for everyone involved.," Khu-Lon admitted. "He reminds me of Xian-Pu's father. So strong physically, and yet so vulnerable when it comes to matters of the soul."

She didn't say anymore about it. Xian-Pu's father had really loved her granddaughter, who despite being a warrior had been less rooted in tradition than the others. Her premature death at the hands of a crazy warrior of the Phoenix tribe when Xian-Pu had been seven years old had devastated him. Even worse was, how the other warriors had mobbed him out of the village shortly later, forced to leave his daughter behind. She'd never seen him again and wondered where he was now.

"You two planned this right from the start, didn't you?"

Looking to another branch, they saw the two crows Phobos and Deimos sitting there. It had been Deimos who'd spoken, her accusing voice couldn't be mistaken for someone else's.

"We did. After all, it turned out for the best, didn't it?" Pluto countered.

"Yes, but what if it hadn't? Ever thought of that?" Deimos accused them further, being unhappy with the sheming of these two.

"We did," Khu-Lon interrupted the rant. "In the worst case we would have stepped in. But imagine him walking around with this problem growing in his head until it's far too late! We did hurt him, yes, but we also saved him from much more pain in the future."

"Don't think we're heartless because of some of the things we do," Pluto added further.

"You two are impossible," Deimos huffed, then flew away.

Phobos could only shake his head. "Don't mind her, she just cares a lot and takes it personal. Although I sometimes don't understand her, since she has no problem with keep other information from them." He said the last thing while looking to Pluto, making clear what he meant.

"That's the burden of the guardians," Pluto added quietly, feeling again somewhat guilty.

"Well, I'm off. The day's still long and I need to eat." That said, Phobos few away as well.

Neither of them had noticed Grandpa Hino having listened in to the group in the yard, writing down notes about Ranma. It was unclear why he was doing that, only occasionally mumbling "...Nakamura-sann will want to hear that..." and "...Nakamura-san will be proud of him...".

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"**__**Akane's hard Lesson of life**__**"**_

**Notes:**

**First off, if you thought that Ranma had broken down far to fast, here my explanation. In canon, the whole thing is still played for laughs; canon is a sociopathic comedy. Playing this dead serious, Ranma breaking down in a matter of days is completely realistic. Just think about all the mental stress Ranma is going through.**

**If you think Ryoga is too two-dimensional... In canon he'd that way and in real-life such complete jerks and idiots also exist. So that's the way I write him, as a delusional, complete jerk.**

**Now, next time (which hopefully won't take as long) be prepared for action and changes.**


	14. Akane's hard Lesson of Life

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

This chapter was a bitch to develop, but I hope it pays off..

**Sorry for the LONG wait! This time I really have no excuse other than writer's block. This chapter at first was supposed to actually end the arc of Nephrite, but I soon realized that this would be impossible, as it became far too long, so I split it in two.**

**Note that specific notes are at the end of the chapter, to avoid spoilers.**

* * *

**Chapter 13: Akane's hard Lesson of Life**

_"You all know why we've come here!" a red-haired noblewoman told the gathered people._

_It was a strange mixture of people that had gathered in the huge circle of stones. Thousands of people, from all different parts of society. Soldiers, workers, nobles and farmers alike were listening to what she had to say. One thing was uniting them; they all had an air of anger, of unhappiness and of violence around them._

_"Society as we know it is dying. Mankind can no longer go on like this. These fools in both kingdoms do not want to see that the time of change has come!"_

_The crowd agreed with her, jeers of agreement echoed through the night, where a bright crescent waxing moon was seen in the sky. The area surrounding the circle of stones was unusually quiet, as if a veil of death had been put onto it, scaring away any living things. Instead, an unnatural deep purple glow was creeping out of the ground, like a fog of malevolence clawing its way out of the ground._

_"I know many of you have fears. But do not fear, as I am here for you while you take this step and become more than just mere human! Let's begin a new age!"_

_Raising her arms, a long, golden scepter with a crystal ball on top of it in her hands, the dark fog suddenly swept through the crowd. Gasps and groans echoed through the night, mixed with cries of pain and demented laughter as the bodies of those present were twisted in unnatural ways, turning them into something that was far from being human. The woman herself, kneeling during all of this, seemed mostly unaffected, just her eyes turning yellow, her skin becoming paler and yellowish and the growth of two small horns on her shoulders._

_When it was over, her eyes scanned the crowd. "Finally you have the power we need. Now we just need those to lead you into battle so that you can serve our Great Master!" she announced, then turned towards the viewpoint of the whole scene, raising her scepter, which now looked more like made of bone than gold._

_"Yes, Queen Beryl!" the crowd of Youma cheered, while watching what would happen next._

_..._

"Wha... oh," Nephrite groaned, while trying to get his bearings.

His nightmares of recent had become even worse than what they used to be. He felt it difficult to concentrate on his mission and the stars were more silent than ever, reflecting the troubled state of his mind. He had currently lost the concentration to talk to the stars. The mere idea that he'd lose to the jerk Jadeite because he was unable to find restful sleep was humiliating.

Pushing open the glass doors that led to the balcony, Nephrite looked to the bright city in the distance and the moon in the sky above. The mild night air however did little to lessen the headache he was feeling. This nightmare had been especially bizarre, since he'd always known that the Youma had once been human before they'd twisted themselves into the complete opposite of alive beings.

What was confusing was, that he hadn't been there when it had happened, so how could he have such a detailed dream about it? Looking up into the sky, he could barely see the stars thanks to all the light pollution from the city of Tokyo. It was strangely symbolic. For one who'd relied on them for guidance so much, he now felt that they were even abandoning him this way.

"Pull yourself together," he tried to order himself. "I only have a few days left before I become disgraced."

Yet it helped little to put him at ease.

* * *

_...Friday, early evening, Neko-Hanten..._

"I have to admit, I'm impressed," Khu-Lon told Ranma, trying to hide that she already had known he'd pass the test two days ago. It would do good to stroke his ego a bit, since everyone, men and women alike, reacted well to it. "I had my doubts, thought you were too much of a macho, but you managed to master this challenge."

They had all come to the Neko-Hanten after closing hours and had now made themselves comfortable in the dining area after Ranma had been returned to male. They all were curious what the old woman had in store, thus why they were all there.

"You'd be surprised what I'm capable of," Ranma told her, but didn't give off any sign of triumph.

For one, he was still enjoying finally being back to male after the elder had removed the block that had kept him female, and thus was far too happy to resort to acting arrogant. Also, he didn't feel he had any right to brag, since after all he'd needed the help of his friends, and especially of Ami, to pull through. No, he had no justification to brag at all. He was just happy he'd made it through.

"I think I'll be the judge of that," she concluded, then added "I'm sure you're now quite eager to hear what I plan to teach you once I have the time ?"

Ranma knew she'd add this. After all she had a business to run and six girls to train. That left her right now with little time. "Sure, let's hear what you have in store for me."

"Well, sonny, I have three powerful techniques to teach to you. Once you are capable in these, I will reveal a fourth to you which I'll keep secret for the time being. The first technique will enable you to hit a target with several hundred strikes in less than five seconds. The second one will allow you to toughen up your ki-defenses significantly. The third and final one is a true gem, as it allows you to harness your own life-energy and and concentrate it in a destructive blast."

"Woah, that sounds almost as impressive as the stuff we can do with our magic!" Minako gasped after everyone so far had stayed silent during the exchange.

Ami shook her head, sceptically. "Don't get me wrong, I learned that lots of stuff is possible, but how are several hundred punches in seconds even humanly possible; especially without magic?" she then asked.

"There are no stupid questions. Of course it normally would be physically impossible to do it in the first place or if you could, it would force all the blood out of the arms, break all bones in them and tear the flesh apart. After all, even with all physical training, the human body does have its limits without special powers," Khu-Lon explained and then enjoyed the looks of horror she got in return.

"I'm kind of attached to my arms," Ranma said defensively.

Khu-Lon waved it off. "Oh, don't worry, sonny. The trick is, to infuse your arms in your ki, so that you not only became capable of doing the feat, but make your arms next to indestructible for the duration of the attack. Oh, and before I forget, after you learned the basics, you train by picking chestnuts out of a fire without burning your hands."

"Ouch! That makes me downright happy you declared us unfit for this kind of stuff," Naru winced, imagining picking chestnuts out of a fire. "Is all the really advanced stuff that crazy?"

"Oh no, some is even worse, such as the toughening training. It in the end involves throwing big boulders at someone," Khu-Lon said lightly, then again enjoyed the looks of horror. She then laughed. "Ha, got you. Of course the start is small and the usage of ki to make one temporarily super-hardened is trained so the final boulders don't hurt at all. As a bonus you get a technique that can reduce all kind of stone to rubble in a second."

"It still sounds insane," Mamoru commented, wondering if he had done the right thing by joining.

"Oh, of course without the ki reserves and the proper training, it is. Some fools tried to right away start with the big boulders. These women all landed in hospital with a full body cast. That's why the training plan has to be strictly followed at all cost," Khu-Lon added, then gave Xian-Pu a knowing look.

"That was years ago, great-grandmother, and I only broke four ribs!" Xian-Pu defended herself, while blushing.

_'Only broke four ribs'? Maybe I can still bail out?_ Usagi wondered when hearing this.

"Really impressive stuff," Ranma finally said. "What's that last one?"

"Ah, yes. The last technique allows you to hold onto an emotion you are especially connected to and use it to form part of your life energy into a projectile, effectively giving you a distance attack," Khu-Lon explained.

"I don't really like shooting around my life energy. Having it sucked out by a Youma was bad enough," Ranma complained, not liking the sound of it.

Khu-Lon gave him a look of understanding. "I know it sounds dangerous, but considering the huge amount you've already amassed and are still gathering, the power put into such an attack is negligible. Just make sure that you avoid anger or depression as the emotions to draw onto your power."

"Why would those two be bad?" Akane asked, having a feeling that at least anger would be close to home.

"Well, depression would end up in a vicious circle, with the user becoming more and more depressed. I've seen people self-destruct, crushed by their own depression put into a suicide blast." Khu-Lon let them digest this, before looking to Akane. "As for anger... It means a total loss of control and restraint and ends up in ruthlessness. That's a danger you should be well aware of."

Akane blushed a little. "At least I know I do have a small problem sometimes... My sensei is working on it."

"The way you vented your anger in our sessions, I wouldn't exactly call it a small problem," Ranma said somewhat tactless and then kept silent when getting a dirty look from the girl.

"Well, sonny, until I find the time to train you, you can work on improving your manners," the elder laughed.

"Well, he certainly is not the only one who needs to," Rei then said, looking to Usagi. "I know someone who could also use some of them."

Usagi rolled her eyes. "What are you implying, Rei?"

"Oh nothing, just that you eat like a glutton, are almost never on time, lazy and read my manga without asking me first," Rei casually said and enjoyed seeing Usagi getting riled up.

Not that she meant it in a mean way, during the time she'd known her she'd learned to value Usagi and her actually existing special talents, but the girl sometimes needed a firm kick into the butt to compensate for her shortcomings and help her to get her act together.

"I really hope this doesn't become a regular occurrence," Mamoru grumbled when seeing the two girls again being at it.

Naru rolled her eyes. "Believe me, you'll see more of it than you want to."

Mamoru took this as a hint that someone should do something. "Hey, Bunny. Did you know you're awefully cute when angry?"

This stopped Usagi right away. Try to find words, she blushed, before getting out "W-what's it with you and this nickname?"

"Well, calling you 'Bunny' is certainly nicer than 'meatball head'. It really fits with your name," Mamoru told her. He couldn't help it but to find her really cute, now that she was blushing.

"Oooooh, just see what you have done! You made her all embarrassed. Maybe she likes you?" Minako teased and got rewarded with Usagi's blush deepening.

Usagi would never admit it, but now that Mamoru had stopped making fun of her and actually was nice and supportive, she couldn't help but to find that he wasn't that bad of a guy. Add to it that was quite good-looking and her attempts at denial had become difficult. The truth of that matter was, she did find Mamoru attractive.

Makoto used the distraction to discreetly pull Xian-Pu to the side. "Uhm, yes?" she asked, still a bit unused to someone wanting to talk privately to her.

"While everyone concentrates on our 'lovebirds', what's the matter with him?" Makoto asked, pointing to Mu-Tsu, who right now was counting the earnings of the day and writing all of it down into the account book.

Xian-Pu shook her head. "No idea. That's totally unlike him. Either he's sulking, or he's planning something big to impress me. If it's the last one, it'll again end in tears." She then gave gave her a strange look. "Don't tell me you actually really are developing a crush on him. I thought this was just talk."

Makoto sighed. "I don't know, OK? Maybe. He certainly is good-looking, but I have no idea what he's like. It's just so difficult with him not talking at all. I have to give it, once he finally decides to ditch these archaic glasses for something newer and thinner, he'd look good all the time. However, I really don't want to judge a man just by his looks."

Xian-Pu couldn't help but to feel a bit sorry for the girl. "You know he'll probably never see reason and finally let go of his foolish crush on me."

"A girl can at least try, right?"

Xian-Pu sighed. "I know it won't end well, but I'll help you, even if just to stop Mu-Tsu giving everyone the silent treatment. Just wait a little longer before you make your move."

* * *

_...a little later in a cinema..._

"Man, I never guessed this would be that much fun!" Ranma told Ami in excitement, while watching the action on the big screen and eating some more popcorn.

Ami couldn't help but to feel relieved that she'd made the right decision.

Ranma at first had been skeptical when she'd suggested after leaving the Neko-Hanten, that they could go to the cinema to watch a movie. After all, he'd never had much exposure to those and therefore had little idea what he liked, and she had never cared much about this kind of entertainment and thus had little idea about the whole thing in general. He hadn't known at that point that Ami had put considerable work into the issue.

Since she herself hadn't had much experience, she had first looked into what different kind of movies existed... After a day of that she'd almost been ready to throw the magazines she'd been reading out of the window, as it proved to be an almost impossible task. So she'd done another strategy and tried to narrow it down to what Ranma could probably like.

She right away discarded any movies that were geared towards a female audience. Not only would Ranma be insulted, but he'd be bored out of his mind as well or even disgusted at the women in the cinema ahhh-ing at the male protagonist. Drama would only annoy him, as he'd had enough of this in his life and movies with highly complicated stories would probably confuse and bore his as well. And certainly no martial arts movies, as he'd be insulted and nitpick the whole thing apart.

In the end she'd decided to go the safe route and pick an action movie with lots of shooting, explosions, car chases and cool one-liners. After all, most men liked these and even she could find entertainment in them.

Judging by his reactions, she'd hit dead center.

_Not exactly how I imagined a date, but at least we're both having a good time,_ she thought, while taking a sip from her soda.

Ranma himself meanwhile was really enjoying the movie. He didn't have much of an idea what to expect when Ami suggested going to the cinema; especially since he almost never used the TV at home as well. To his surprise, it was tons of fun. While it was one thing to have too much action in your life, watching a movie containing it was a different matter.

He also was happy that Ami had not chosen something boring. The few times he'd heard the girls discussing movies he'd been scared away by the hints of the plot. Essentially, the plot mostly was to show off the handsome protagonist (male) and how he'd be romantically involved. This was a huge turn-off for Ranma, whose real-life expose to romance with Ami was more on the line of forged in battle.

_I really have to repay her somehow,_ he thought, wondering if he should ask his mother what a girl would like on a date.

Without noticing, he took hold of Ami's free hand.

She did notice, however, and found it nice. She knew it meant that he wanted her to share the good time he was having right now. From him that meant a great deal, since he didn't show his emotions easily and was a rather private person. She squeezed his hand a little in return.

He now noticed, but seeing the small smile Ami gave him, he didn't do anything about it.

They really weren't made for all the sappy romance stuff, with him being allergic to girly stuff and her having no mind for over-the-top sweetness, but small signs of affection were much better and they had their own ways to be close to each other.

* * *

_...in the Dark Kingdom..._

"Mhhh, Nephrite, you really don't look well. What's the matter, so scared that you lose against Jadeite?" Zoisite mockingly asked while they walked into the throne room.

Nephrite gave he a dirty look. "That's really none of your concern," he growled, his lack of sleep making him moody.

"Oh, have we become thin-skinned? Then it must be serious," she chuckled, before before walking up beside Kunzite.

Nephrite felt his nerves grow thin. He'd been ordered to return to the Dark Kingdom in the middle of the night by Queen Beryl for some reason he didn't know. Seeing that the other generals were gathered as well, it had to be of some importance. Whatever it was, he was sure that Queen Beryl would use the opportunity to ask him about his own progress... or better, the lack of it. He knew that it would be humiliating in one way or another.

Entering the throne room, they stood before the queen, waiting for her to speak.

"Where is Jadeite? I called him as well," she questioned when seeing the absence of the fourth general.

Right on cue, a hologram of Jadeite appeared beside the other generals. "I beg your pardon, my queen. Things have moved to a critical phase and I can't appear in person before you. I hope this is no inconvenience."

"No. Since you are all gathered, I want reports first. Jadeite, how is the plan proceeding?" she inquired.

"Excellent, my queen," Jadeite reported with pride. "Production of our hot music is running at maximum capacity. Our advertisement campaign was a huge success and demand is high. Once it hits the stores in five days, it will be an instant hit... To make it short: it is going even better than anticipated."

Beryl showed a pleased, dark smile. "Very good, Jadeite! You have done well so far." She then turned to Nephrite. "And you, Nephrite?"

Nephrite felt like cursing, especially when seeing Jadeite's gloating looks. "Sadly I can't report a success as of now."

"How unfortunate for you." While that coming from Kunzite sounded neutral, it was a deep insult, and Nephrite knew that. Also, they way he had his hand on Zoisite's shoulder made his allegiance clear.

"Nephrite, I'm disappointed in you," Beryl told him. "It seems you can't hold your promise. Five days left for you to make up for it."

"Yes, Queen Beryl," he told her with his teeth grounded together, feeling humiliated.

"Now to business. Some of my infiltrator Youma have relayed interesting information to me. According to them, a princess from the nation of Dia will present a special jewel at the embassy in Tokyo tomorrow evening. According to rumors, the crystal is rumored to glitter in all colors of silver. It therefore could be possible that it could be the Silver Crystal we seek."

"I'll check it out, your majesty," Nephrite said at once.

"How dare you! The Silver Crystal is our responsibility!" Zoisite protested.

"And the city of Tokyo right now is my responsibility, so it's my job." Nephrite then turned to Beryl. "Queen Beryl, please give me this opportunity to possibly recover the Silver Crystal for you."

Beryl gave him a knowing look. "Hmmm, it seems you want to make up for your repeated failures, Nephrite. Nonetheless, I will grant you this chance. Discover if it is what we seek."

"Thank you, my queen." Giving Zoisite a look of superiority, he vanished.

Zoisite looked ready to explode and barely held back while Kunzite hand both of his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to get her to calm down. He could understand why she was this upset and felt resentful towards Nephrite as well. However, he said nothing. Instead, it was Jadeite who addressed their queen.

"My queen, I have some doubts in Nephrite's faithfulness. I would not put him above taking the crystal for his own. Also all of his plans have failed so far; why this trust in him?" Jadeite said, having watched the exchange with distaste.

"Someone who's under pressure and desperate always tries to achieve his goal... I feel that most of your reasoning comes from your rivalry with him," Beryl commented, but then added, "nonetheless, if it pleases any of you, keep an eye on Nephrite. I can punish him any time, should he forget his place."

"Yes, your majesty," Jadeite said, then took his leave.

Kunzite said nothing. Instead, he was guiding Zoisite out of the throne room. She was trembling with anger and had barely managed to contain it. An outburst in front of their queen wouldn't have helped in any way.

o

"Who does he think he is? This backstabbing bastard! We are doing all the work to find the crystal and now he tries to snatch away our reward!" Zoisite complained as soon as Kunzite had navigated her to their quarters.

For being located in such a dark place as the Dark Kingdom, their quarters were kind of cozy and homely. No one had batted an eye when they had decided to share a bedroom. It was no secret that these two had a thing for each other and Queen Beryl was not interested in the private lives of her generals as long as they'd serve her well.

"Don't worry, Zoisite. Nephrite will get what he deserves for this transgression. No one intrudes into our matters and gets away. We just have to wait and watch until he makes the critical error that will bring him down. Then we'll strike," he told her, while starting to stroke her hair.

"But Kunzite... What if he actually does find the Silver Crystal?" Zoisite asked, fearing what would happen then.

Kunzite chuckled. "If this arrogant fool really manages to do so, which I sincerely doubt, we'll simply steal it from him and then sell it as our own success."

Zoisite finally calmed down when hearing this. Leaning against him, she purred "Oh Kunzite... You are simply the smartest."

"Oh yes. And regardless what others might say, you are the most beautiful," he told her. "Soon, no one will stop us from being our queen's most faithful subjects."

"And then I can make Nephrite pay for everything he said about me. How often has he made fun of my lack of femininity? I want to see him suffer."

Kunzite for a moment looked grim when remembering Nephrite's repeated insults. "Oh yes, he will suffer."

"What about Jadeite? You think he could be dangerous to us?" she wondered.

Kunzite snorted. "Jadeite is good at following orders. He has little in the way of initiative. While he does have his strengths, and he has proven to have these, I can't see him becoming a danger to us. We can order him around as we please as long as our queen allows it... But enough of this for now."

"Kunzite...?" She then felt his lips on hers.

"The night is still young and the fool Nephrite can wait for the moment. We'll start to spy after him tomorrow. Until then, I have something better in mind."

Zoisite smiled when realising what he meant.

* * *

_...a little later..._

_It was a peaceful day in Atlantis, the capital city of the Earth Kingdom, located on an island in the middle of what would be known as the Atlantic Ocean. In the Titan Palace, King Endymion the Elder was right at the moment attending to a session of the elected senate in order to confer with them on the issues of the kingdom._

_The session had just begun, when the four generals entered the senate chamber, walking to stand to their king's side, although there was something disturbing in their eyes._

_"My son is still visiting the court on the Moon?" the king asked._

_"Yes, he's still away," Jadeite told him._

_The king shook his head. "Sometimes I think he's a bit too laid-back. I wonder what will become of the kingdom if he really marries Princess Serenity."_

_"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that..." Zoisite said sinister, before all of a sudden a sharp crystal was rammed through the back of the chair and through the king's chest. The king was unable to say anything in his final moments, his lungs filled with blood, but his eyes gave them a look of pure betrayal, before he faded away._

_Everyone present was in shock for a moment, before chaos broke out and the guards stormed in. "The king!" "We trusted you!" "A knife to the back!" "You bastards!"_

_"Pathetic!" Kunzite said, before black lightning shot out of his hands, killing the guards and the entire senate._

_..._

"Not again..." Nephrite groaned.

His lack of sleep had caught up with him and he'd fallen asleep during his preparations for his greatest creation. And of course the dreams had again come to him. He wondered what it meant that he had dreamed about the killing of the damned King Endymion, since he was sure that the man had been a bastard. And yet... yet the look of betrayal he'd given them in his final moments had been frightening. As if it really meant something.

He tried to shake it off. "I have to concentrate. I have only one shot at this, the components are really rare."

Watching his star field, Nephrite nodded when seeing that he'd woken up in time. "Uranus and Neptune are finally in the right position relative to the sun. The time has come."

Concentrating, purple energy crackled around Nephrite, while he threw the ingredients into the star field mechanism, turning it pitch-black. The crackling energy concentrated onto the dark sphere while Nephrite used his magic to hold it together. Colored lights danced through the otherwise dark room while the sphere got more and more compressed, until finally it had taken form of any object that could easily fit into one and.

Nephrite picked it up from the floor and looked at it.

It was a black crystal that comfortably fit into his hand. It was lengthy, cut octagonal and was pointed at both ends. Despite being such a small object, it was radiating intense power - dark power that is. Nephrite gave a satisfied smile when inspecting the crystal for any imperfections, finding none. He had finally done it!

"Finally... They laughed at me. Little did they know I that was researching a way to locate the Silver Crystal while trying to please my queen''s wishes. Little do they know..."

He held the crystal uptight in his hand to look at it. "Little do they know of the powers of the Black Crystal."

* * *

_...Saturday, July 8th, 13:00, Hikawa Shrine..._

"Luna, couldn't it have waited? I'm still winded from today's training and the running made me feel sick," Usagi complained to the mooncat, while trying to catch her breath.

Luna had literally ambushed them as soon as they'd left the Neko-Hanten and told them to get to the shrine, pronto. Running all the way to the Hikawa Shrine and up the stairs had worn her and the others out, with exception of Makoto, who seemed to have taken this just as a light exercise.

"You wouldn't feel sick if you hadn't eaten several bowls of ramen," Luna scolded Usagi, who in return gave her a look of annoyance.

"Is that a jab at my weight?" Usagi accused Luna.

"Even if it is, I doubt any of us will gain weight considering how much we are put through the wringer regularly," Minako panted. "I just hope you didn't make us run all the way for nothing."

"We're not that petty."

Looking to the direction of the main shrine, they saw that it had been Artemis who'd spoken. Good thing that there currently were no visitors to the shrine. They also saw Ranma, Mamoru and Akane already waiting for them; a clear sign the whatever was the matter was serious enough to call everyone together.

Ranma gave a small smile to Ami, before complaining "I hope it's important. Pop was just showing me some advanced techniques. Do you have any idea how confusing it is to lose your concentration because of a white, talking cat?"

"Look, I already apologised for the brick..." Artemis started, but then stopped when being interrupted by Rei.

"Look, we should take this inside. Neither my grandfather nor me have any wish to have to explain to visitors to the shrine why we have talking cats around here," Rei told them under no terms, pointing to the door of the house.

There was a moment of silence. Now that they thought about it, they'd been damn luck that no one had caught them the many times they'd spoken with them. Looking up to a tree they could see two crows barely being able to hold back their laughter, before they descended and settled of Rei's shoulders. However, they still said nothing, a clear sign that everyone involved should get moving.

Everyone took the hint and moved towards the Hino house at the far side of the area. Inside, they got their next surprise. They'd seen many things, but Sailor Pluto sitting at the table in the family room, enjoying some tea with the elder Hino... It looked almost surreal and they blinked, trying to check if the light had played a trick on their eyes. Alas, it was real when Pluto noticed them.

"I have been waiting for you. Your grandfather is a good host, Rei," she greeted them, enjoying every moment of their confusion.

Makoto quirked an eyebrow. "That's already the second time you seem to know what's going on. Do you have some kind of precognitive power we aren't aware of?"

Pluto laughed lightly. "Oh, I wish I had. Would make things so much easier. Alas, apart from truly life-changing events in the near future I'm as blind to future events as you are. The answer is much more simple, Artemis told me."

There was a collective groan, before everyone sat down at the table, while Grandfather Hino excused himself that he had some duties to attend and left the room.

"Now, since Artemis already told me what this is about..." everyone looked annoyed to Artemis, wondering why he'd told HER but not THEM, "...and since he can hardly transport it himself, take a look at this."

Pluto put a newspaper onto the table and everyone tried to reach it. Since this would have proven impossible, Ami took it and started to read it aloud. "The princess of the nation of Dia will present a national treasure today inside the embassy in central Tokyo during a big reception and ball, with a public party in the garden of the embassy. The presented item is one of the national treasures, a jewel that is rumored to glitter in all colors of silver."

No one said something for some moment, then Usagi asked "And what does this have to do with us?"

"Baka Usagi!" Luna hissed, again wondering where Usagi was with her thoughts at times. "If you would have paid attention when Pluto explained the situation, you'd know that this could be the Silver Crystal."

"Oh..." It seemed that it was now dawning on her.

"Wait a minute, isn't that this hugely powerful magical gem that Queen Serenity used?" Minako wondered, remembering the lesson far better than Usagi did.

Pluto laughed a little. "The queen would find it shocking to have her heirloom being described this crudely, but that's right. The Silver Crystal is Princess Serenity's rightful inheritance and her most important tool of power. Therefore, we do have to find it and return it to her before her awakening."

Ami took a look at the newspaper, before asking "So, we do have to check if it is what we seek? After all, it would be pretty bad if it'd fall into the hands of the Dark Kingdom."

"Bad? Disastrous. Should the Dark Kingdom get hold of it, we could pretty much write off Earth. So we have to check if it is the Silver Crystal, or not," Pluto told them further.

Pluto did feel guilty. She knew exactly that the Silver Crystal was not that crystal from Dia. She knew it had been separated into the seven Rainbow Crystals at Queen Serenity's death and she knew where the crystals were and that only Usagi could assemble them back together. She was very tempted to tell them, but knew that if she did that, Usagi would be forced into the role of the princess far too early and be unable to deal with it.

Just judging by how burdensome it had been for her originally, Pluto knew Usagi needed more time to grow into her role as Sailor Moon first, before she'd be ready for her destiny. Also, she didn't dare to risk revealing the Moon Princess this early, as she feared what the Dark Kingdom would do. Nevertheless, she still felt bad for keeping all this information from them and sending them on a wild goose chase.

_Well, I WILL apologise as soon as Usagi has gotten the crystal,_ she vowed, feeling that a honest apology would be best.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Mamoru asked, after having stayed silent the entire time. "I've seen how much police there is. Getting inside is quite difficult and I sincerely doubt that, if it is the Silver Crystal, we can simply take it. If we even can see if it's what we're looking for."

"I wouldn't worry about recognising it. The Senshi of old knew what it looked like, so you'll be able to know. Although it still leaves the problem of getting in," Pluto said.

"Well, about that..." Naru said, then gulped when everyone looked to her. "My mother thanks to her work with jewels actually got an invitation and can bring two extras... I have to tag along and can bring a friend... Don't look at me like that, she sprung this on me this morning!"

"Man, that's some really strange coincidence that you can come there just like that. Sometimes I wonder if someone creates these situations on purpose," Ranma commented in a tone that made it clear he felt that events were again taking a turn for the strange.

"I've learned in my line of work that strange coincidences have no big meaning," Pluto commented dryly. "However, while it does make things easier, we have other options as well. Just think for a minute."

There were some silent moments, then they seemed to understand. "Oh yes, I completely forgot. The disguise pen should be really useful," Usagi finally said, digging in her pant pockets to reveal the magical gadget.

"We actually have two, only that I'm currently holding onto Minako's to prevent anymore cheating in school, " Artemis added, still annoyed that Minako had used the pen to boost her grades until he'd caught wind of it.

"Oh, what would I give..." Usagi sighed, when imagining the perfect cheating device.

Luna gave her a cold look. "Remember that I'm monitoring it. Should you use it to cheat in school, I _will_ know and take it away," she warned Usagi.

Mamoru managed to not laugh, since he knew by now that Usagi reacted very badly to him making fun of her grades. "This is one case where my stupid outfit actually is an advantage, since it's perfect evening wear. A good jump from a neighboring building, and I'm in."

"So, let's see. Naru is already invited and she can bring one extra. We can smuggle in two with disguise pens and Mamoru can enter unseen. That leaves who these three extras will be, while the rest stays guard in the garden," Rei summed it up, then looked around for ideas.

"I won't let anyone else use my disguise pen. I will be inside," Usagi said right away, holding onto the artifact.

Everyone rolled their eyes at this childishness, but let it slide. Naru then spoke up. "I actually would be more comfortable with Akane."

Said girl looked perplexed. "Why me? I mean..."

"I know, I know! However, in case of trouble I need someone who can help me get away for my transformation. It'd be kind of difficult if all of us need to transform," Naru explained her reasoning.

"You want someone who can do more than just throwing around magic blasts to prevent serious damage?" Akane guessed and saw Naru blush slightly. "Good, I'll do it, but I fear by best dress will still look horribly out of place."

"That still leaves one spot..." Ami said and looked to Ranma. Ranma only now became aware that the previous reasoning left him as the ideal candidate for the last spot. "And you'd need more of a disguise..."

"Oh no! You want me to turn into a girl and then magic on some frilly dress?" Ranma looked thoroughly disgusted by the mere idea. "I might start to get over my problems with the whole girl-thing, but that's taking it too far!"

"Please, Ranma, we really need you!" Makoto tried to convince him.

"NO! Hell freezes over before I do that!"

* * *

_...evening, near the embassy..._

"I really hate all of you..." Ranma grumbled, being a girl and waiting with the others in a dark side alley near the embassy.

"Oh, come on, Ranma! We know you don't mean that. You're just pissed that Ami persuaded you to do it," Makoto teased, while watching Naru and Akane enter the embassy with Mrs. Osaka. She could see Usagi in her magically created evening gown persuading the guard to let her in.

Ranma looked a little hurt to Ami. "These puppy eyes were a mean trick."

Ami had to admit, she did feel a bit guilty for making Ranma do something he really didn't like. "I'll make up for it. Promised." That helped to elevate Ranma's mood somewhat.

They then returned to watching the embassy. There was enough police to turn away any regular criminals trying to get in, but they knew that the real threat was something else. The whole area of the embassy was bathed in the light from floodlights and the public party in the garden was already in full swing while the last of the exclusive guests were arriving and let in.

Some fluttering right then announced the arrival of two crows. Phobos and Deimos had one advantage: they could scout out things from air and no one would be any wiser that they'd been watched in the first place.

"Is it all clear?" Rei asked them.

"Yep, no one's guarding the roof. Should be easy for him to get in," Phobos told her, before looking to Tuxedo Mask. "Just prove you're a better man than Endymion. I still remember the ruckus he caused at one royal ball."

His sister Deimos groaned. "Yes, please! I don't think we want to read anything like this in the newspaper tomorrow."

Tuxedo Mask shuddered, as he right then got Endymion's memory of said incident. It made him really wonder if something had went wrong in Endymion's upbringing, or if it just was a phase he would have grown out of if not for his early death. He vowed right away he'd act like a complete gentleman this night, before jumping to the roof in order to reach the embassy.

"Ok, Ranma, your turn," Minako told her, putting the disguise pen into her hand.

"Ranma, we won't laugh at you," Ami reassured her.

"Ok, here goes nothing." Ranma hoped that whatever her mind would conjure up wouldn't be too frilly. After seeing what Usagi had conjured, she prayed that this stupid pen wouldn't give her a make-over into a prissy princess just for shit and giggles.

_Okay, just a girl with a nice evening gown. Nothing frilly, just nice,_ Ranma thought, while holding the pen over her head, hoping that pleading would work.

The actual magic was strangely anti-climatic. There just was some white light for two seconds and she felt as if taking a warm, very relaxing shower. Apart from that, the magic at first didn't seem to have done anything at all, until she looked down onto herself and saw what clothes the pen had conjured onto her.

"Well, it could be far worse."

o

Meanwhile inside embassy the festivities had started.

Usagi was simply amazed at how very exclusive it all looked. This was a totally different world from her normal life, and she was almost overwhelmed by all the luxury. All these rich and important people in their evening wear. And yet, despite that, she had a strange feeling of déjà-vu, as if she somehow had went through that before and should know how to act. She chalked it up to the previous Sailor Moon having went through this at court and paid it no more attention.

She then froze when seeing her father, wearing his best evening wear, making photos of the event. She felt like kicking herself. Of course the media would cover the event and her father as a journalist would be present. For a moment she feared he'd recognise her, but when he approached her, she saw no recognition in his eyes. It seemed the disguise magic in the pen was working.

"Excuse me. Would you mind if I get your picture for tomorrow's edition?" he politely asked her.

"Uhm...yes. No problem." She tried to give him a nice smile while hoping that the disguise also worked on photographs. Still, it should, since she hadn't recognised herself in the mirror after using the pen.

After he thanked her, she could hear him talking to himself. "...I can't help it, she reminds me of Usagi. I hope Usagi becomes like this lady when grown-up..."

Usagi tried to not blush and noticed Naru and Akane sitting at a table, looking around for anything unusual to happen. Not that anything would happen soon, since the princess of Dia wouldn't appear for more than half an hour. While Naru had the right dress for the occasion, Akane looked painfully out of place, even her best dress looking underwhelming in these surroundings, and the girl obviously seemed to know that, judging by how she tried to hide it with the table.

They obviously hadn't recognised her as well. She approached them. "Excuse me..."

Both of them looked up and at first wondered who this woman was, since they hadn't been there when Usagi had created the disguise. Then they saw the brooch in her hand, before put it back into storage, and finally recognition dawned onto them.

Naru shook her head. "This disguise is frighteningly effective. I hadn't had any idea it was you."

"I wish I had one. These women are burning me with their looks," Akane groaned.

Akane right now felt like the ugly duckling in a horde of swans and it served to re-open some old fears about her femininity. While she'd mostly made peace with it and felt that it was stupid, there always was this little, remaining fear in the background that told her that she didn't measure with other girls. And at the moment having such a plain dress made her feel standing out and shunned by everyone else outside of her friends.

"I wish I had your problem. My disguise is worse."

Looking up, they needed to put things together before they realised that it was Ranma. Her disguise was... not very manly. Sure, it wasn't anything like Usagi's disguise, which was almost over-the-top. It actually was a rather simple yet stylish blue dress. There was little in the way of decoration apart from earrings and they noticed that Ranma's red hair was unbound. However, Ranma's frown showed that she still was unhappy with the situation.

"How is that worse?" Akane openly wondered.

"You mean apart from the fact that I feel like a crossdresser?" Ranma whispered, while doing some strange motion to correct something unseen. "This damn disguise is complete, including the fitting underwear. How do you think that makes me feel?"

Naru dramatically rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Ranma. We don't want to know about your undergarments. And I know it sounds strange right now, but be a man and try to think it's for the greater good, OK?"

"I still don't like it," Ranma groaned, while trying to get used to the form-hugging underwear.

Ranma would never admit it, and even was disturbed that she thought so, but the underwear felt like a perfect fit onto her girl-body (which it probably was thanks to magic). It was surprisingly comfortable how it tightly hugged her female body in places better left unmentioned. Sure, she still would never wear it outside of being forced to, but it wasn't as bad as she'd feared, although still embarrassing enough.

Right then the orchestra announced the first dance.

"Oh man... That's my cue to make myself rare. No way I want any of these guys ask me for a dance. Even if I could dance, the only one I want to with is Ami," Ranma announced, before leaving them alone.

"He is really getting better, although I can't blame him for wanting to be left alone. Must be hard on him," Naru commented when watching the redhead leave.

"Excuse me, can I have this dance?"

Startled, Usagi looked to her left, to discover Tuxedo Mask offering his hand to her. He had been completely right. With his outfit - minus the top hat - and his mask, he blended it perfectly with the other guests, many of whom also wore masks. Then Usagi remembered that he was offering a dance and she doubted that it was a good idea, since she didn't have any idea how to dance. Yet, for appearances sake she still accepted the hand and allowed him to escort him to the dancing floor.

Surprisingly, when the music started the moves came rather easily to her, almost as if she knew how to dance. It was puzzling, since she never before had bothered with it. Mamoru also proved to be quite a good dancer and they easily went with the music. She... she actually enjoyed it.

"Strange, I can't dance at all, and yet it comes so easy to me all of a sudden," she whispered to Mamoru during the dance.

"Maybe it's like me. I also had no idea, but suddenly I got the feeling that I know all the moves. Guess our old lives were really good at this and we're just using what they learned," Mamoru concluded.

Mamoru didn't really like getting a skill from these old memories, since it felt like cheating. Maybe Ranma was rubbing off on him, since he'd told him that freebies, regardless if they're magical or skills, just can't replace the results of hard work. He also didn't like that part of Endymion's life was influencing him, despite the fact that they were the same person, just reborn.

"That would explain a lot..." Usagi didn't tell him that she had a déjà-vu, feeling like dancing with Mamoru should remind her of something. She shook it off. "You know... this is actually nice."

"Despite us being on duty, you seem to enjoy yourself," Mamoru observed.

"Well, at first I thought with all these high-class people..." Usagi wondered if she should tell him. She decided it couldn't hurt. "You know, you're not that bad of a guy... Despite the bad start we had."

"Really?" Now Mamoru was interested. "What makes you say that?"

"Well... you've become a lot nicer. You help us in battle, you are smart and you want to help people. You can't be a bad person," Usagi tried to explain.

Mamoru had to admit that Usagi was completely honest and in her own way she'd given him the highest compliment. "I think we then can be glad that we stopped insulting each other and are friends now."

"Yeah...friends." Usagi wondered why she sounded a bit disappointed.

Watching the dance from their table, Naru sighed. "I have no idea how she does it. Last time Usagi tried to dance, she fell flat onto her face, causing Umino to cry like a waterfall."

"That girl really is an enigma. A lot of times she's useless, and then...bam, things like this," Akane added, feeling a bit envious of Usagi that she got a dance partner.

"Right now I feel so excluded," Naru complained, feeling that this would be a long evening.

Unknown to them, someone else had entered the ballroom right then.

Nephrite looked around and was surprised how much the event reminded him of these horrifically boring events at the court of King Endymion. Regardless in which kind of mind, he'd always dislike these kind of sleep-inducing events. However, he did have to find some occupation until his shadow Youma had scouted out the place and told him the best course of action. So donning evening wear for a disguise, he hoped that it wouldn't be too bad.

He not only hated these events because of how boring they were, but also because of the kind of people attending them. He was a cultured man, but the kind of people at these events often were either social climbers that tried to solidify their position, or people that solely based their fame on their ancestry and otherwise were useless. Nephrite knew that he wouldn't find much and let his eyes scan the room, until suddenly...

_Well, who would have thought?_ he thought in surprise. _Strange how these things happen._

He had not expected this particular girl being here or that he even remembered her at all. He still remembered that spending some time with this girl had actually been nice, so she could probably help him to quickly pass the time and actually enjoy it for real.

He swiftly approached her. "Excuse me. May I have the next dance?"

Akane looked started that someone had asked her for a dance.

She needed some moments to recognise the face from some weeks ago. After all, much had happened since then, occupying her mind. "Oh, Mr. Sanjouin! I had no idea you were invited as well."

"Oh, I'm rich and important enough to be invited, but the guests usually are not the kind of people I like to mingle with," he told her, while giving the people who'd just finished the first dance an indifferent look. "However, you are clearly not one of these people. Would you mind to have the next dance with me?"

"No, I would like that..." Akane had to try hard to not to blush like a stupid schoolgirl. She had to remind herself that he was just being nice, nothing more.

Naru sighed when seeing that she probably would be completely on her own. "Where did you meet him? He looks like someone half the women in the city would love to dance with."

"I literally ran into him. But no wrong ideas, he's a bit too old for me." She then returned her attention to him. "It is just that I can't dance very well."

"Oh, I don't think this will be a problem."

Naru sighed again when she watched Mr. Sanjouin escort Akane to the dance floor and then start the next dance with her. Akane wasn't a very good dancer, but he seemed to take it with humor. It seemed that she and Ranma were really the only ones who were left to get bored out of their minds during the wait until the princess of Dia would present the jewel. That meant almost half an hour of boredom.

Ranma actually did feel a lot like she did, perhaps even worse.

She was not only bored but also very insistent on keeping away any wannabe-suitors. Despite trying to avoid them, there had already been three pimple-faced teenagers, whose tuxedos clashed horribly with their ugly faces, obviously being dragged here by their parents, who'd tried to ask her for the next dance. The first had been scared off with a mere dark look. The second had been more persistent and Ranma had threatened to remove a certain body part in order to make him leave. The third had entered her personal space, earning him a gloved fist into the face and his father dragging him off for 'causing a scene'.

Still observing the room for anything unusual, her eyes then spotted Akane dancing with a man.

First she only cursed what Akane was thinking by dancing with a total stranger, but then her eyes narrowed when seeing the face of man she was dancing with. She knew she had met him before and tried to remember. It was at the back of her head, she just needed to connect the face to the event. Then it finally clicked and what she did remember was very suspicious.

She quickly approached Naru. "You know the guy Akane is dancing with?"

Naru looked up, surprised at the question. "Uhm, no. She just told me she met him. Is something wrong, do you know who he is?"

"Just his name, but I know where I've met him. He showed up in our garden while I was training, right before I started to go crazy," Ranma explained, his eyes never leaving the two out of their sight.

Naru flinched when remembering that episode. It had been bad enough. "You mean it could have been him? He... could it be that he's like this jerk Jadeite?"

"I don't know..." Ranma's eyes didn't leave the pair "but I won't take any chances. We should keep a close eye on this one."

o

After the end of the third dance, Nephrite finally escorted Akane back to the table.

"You are a really good dancer, Mr. Sanjouin. You actually saved me from having a miserable evening," Akane told him, feeling happy that he had managed to make this evening actually enjoyable.

"On the contrary, you saved me from having to suffer from these boring people infesting such events," he returned with a honest smile.

It was actually interesting how his mood had improved considerably. Sure, there was not anything romantically involved, such things only happened in fairy tales, but she had managed to save him from a boring wait. Also, he found it refreshing to meet someone who had no hidden motives and just wanted to be nice to him.

Akane couldn't help but to blush a little. "Thanks... You are really showing me that there are decent men out there."

Even though he was working for the Dark Kingdom, he still enjoyed the praise. "It's sadly a rare thing these days..."

It was then when he felt his Youma trying to contact him, so he would have to excuse himself quickly. "Oh, if you please excuse me, I need to use the facilities," he told her a bit lamely, before leaving the ballroom.

"Are you sure there's nothing between you and him?" Naru asked, a bit concerned when seeing Akane watching him leave. She had to admit, she in Akane's place would have developed a crush.

"Don't be stupid. He just is a perfect gentleman, no more and no less. That doesn't mean I become a lovesick girl all of a sudden," Akane waved it aside. Yes, she might like him, but not that way.

"If you say so..." Naru hoped that Ranma was wrong, or Akane otherwise would get quite a disappointment.

Meanwhile, Nephrite had really retreated into a restroom stall, where he knew he could contact the Youma without causing unwanted attention.

_"What is your report?"_

_"Master, the princess kept the box with the jewel in a safe. She is about to get it out and bring it downstairs. I will take it from her and bring it to you. As soon as she is downstairs."_

_"Good. I am waiting in a secluded spot in the garden to check it."_

"Perfect." He was about to teleport away, when he noticed a slight glow in his breast pocket. Taking out the Black Crystal, he looked in puzzlement at the slight glow it was emitting.

"Strange... Well, it doesn't matter," he then decided.

Nephrite flickered away, teleporting into the garden of the embassy. Little idea he had that listening to the advice of a Youma that in his previous life had been a complete moron was a bad idea and that he could've made things so much easier on himself.

He would later chalk it up to a lack of sleep.

In the ballroom meanwhile, everyone had cleared the dance floor, as it was announced that the princess of Dia would now enter and present the jewel to the guests. Everyone went silent when they saw the princess walking down the stairs, flanked by two men in tuxedos who obviously were bodyguards. She was holding a wooden, ornamental box in her hands which undoubtedly would contain the jewel.

"Anyone can see if it's the Silver Crystal or not, when she takes it out of the box, like we are doing. Only someone really stupid would try to steal it if they want to check it out," Mamoru whispered under his breath.

Naru meanwhile giggled when seeing the princess. "She could be good-looking, but with these huge glasses, she almost looks like a female Umino."

That was for certain. While the princess did look like a beautiful young woman, the effect was completely ruined by the huge and thick glasses she was wearing. Approaching the middle of the dance floor, she was about to announce what she was to reveal, when all of a sudden the light started to flicker and black mist started to surround her.

"I'll take that!" the mist snapped, forming into a vague human outline, before snatching the box out of the screaming princess's hands and smashing through the garden doors.

"Yeah, someone really stupid..." Ranma laughed humorlessly, before deciding that the disguise part was over and ran to a secluded spot in the midst of the erupting panic, in order to drop the disguise and pull out her ninja mask to jump into the action.

Outside had turnind to panic as well, as many were fleeing the garden when seeing a Youma smacking everyone out of its way. While the Youma could have used sealth to simply slip away like it did before, it again showed that this one came from an utter moron. Just looking at the spectacle the Youma was doing was enough for Nephrite to want to rip out his hair in frustration.

"Why do I get stuck with idiots?" he groaned, before deciding that any kind of disguise no longer served any use and with a burst of light changed back into his uniform.

"Master, I..." the Youma tried to tell him, but Nephrite cut him off.

"Idiot! Do you have no brain?" he snapped at the Youma, before pointing at the box. "Give it to me."

"Hands off that box!"

The Youma dropped the box and Nephrite rolled his eyes at the sheer stupidity. Turning to his right, he saw four Senshi confronting him, which begged the question where the rest was. Looking the other way, he saw part of the answer as he saw Sailor Moon approach with a man he had no idea who he was. Doing the counting he came one Senshi short, but couldn't spot her.

"You are from the Dark Kingdom," Sailor Mars said.

"So we finally meet. I'm Nephrite, one of the four Generals of the Dark Kingdom," he told them, feeling that he should at least introduce himself formerly.

A loud gasp interrupted him and he saw the girl he'd danced with standing in the destroyed door, seemingly having heard everything. She seemed to have paled significantly and was looking at him in what seemed to be a feeling of betrayal. Nephrite knew he shouldn't care, but he still felt bad. He then lost sight of her when she was pulled away by a woman with red hair.

He returned his attention to the Senshi. "And who wants to stop me from taking the box? You?"

"You better believe it," Jupiter threatened, cracking her knuckles.

"I don't have time for this. Keep them busy," Nephrite commanded to his Youma, not hiding that his servant right now was not his favorite person.

The Youma didn't answer and charged the Senshi head-on right away. However, instead of an expected attack, he broke up into smaller parts of black mist, harassing the Senshi to keep them from interfering. It obviously wouldn't win a fight in the long run, but confusion right now was more useful, while Nephrite picked up the box and was about to open it. Was about to, since it suddenly got kicked out of his hands.

"Who...?" But looking around, he couldn't spot anyone, before his eyes fell on the box, which had bursted open when hitting the ground, its contents visible. "You've got to be kidding me."

All fighing stopped and everyone looked to the open box. It wasn't a single jewel as they had expected. Instead, it was a statue made of numerous jewels. The Senshi didn't recognise it at all, making it clear to them that this was surely not the Silver Crystal. It seemed that Nephrite was coming to the same conclusion, feeling that his Black Crystal was not giving off any vibes, although looking at the jewel-statue alone was proof enough.

"That had been a waste of time." He then turned his attention to his Youma. "You stay behind. You screwed it up by not using stealth; you suffer the consequences. Don't even bother to return." Nephrite then teleported away.

"Master! I... no!" The misty Youma howled, before turning to the Senshi in anger. "Raaaggh! Die!"

It seemed that practically being sentenced to death had done a number on the Youma. Disregarding any kind of tactic, it lashed out at the Senshi, a big blast throwing them off their feet while the grass beneath the Youma burned away. Slashing his claws half-blindly, he didn't manage to actually cause serious injury, but the resulting rips in their uniforms warned the Senshi to not get too close.

Venus tried to simply blast him with a Crescent Beam. I went right through him.

"Oh-uh!" was the only thing she managed to get out, before the Youma returned the favor with a pair of red beams out of his eyes, smashing her against the wall of the embassy.

"Mercury, what is this thing?" Mars asked her team mate,while trying to get some distance to the Youma.

Mercury was busy with typing on her computer, trying to get a grip on the monster. "Not good... That thing is in a gaseous state right now. Our direct damage attacks go right through it and we shouldn't even bother with physical attacks."

She said the last with a short glance up to a tree, where she barely saw Ranma crouching after she'd knocked the box out of Nephrite's hands. Mercury had added it to make it clear to Ranma that she'd have to sit out this fight, as she could do little since being restricted to physical attacks. A faint growl was answer enough that Ranma didn't like it, but wouldn't try anything foolish.

Mercury was nearly knocked down when Jupiter landed beside her to evade a blast. "How do we attack something like that?"

That was a good question. They didn't yet have the needed magic power to overcome this problem by brute force, nor was any of the current powers apparently suited for the task.

_Think about it..._ Mercury tried to solve the problem. _I know the solution... Oh yes, how stupid of me!_

Concentrating, she gathered a ball of cold energy in her hands. After some practice she was now able to call onto it easily. The orb of blue energy pulsed between her hands, orbited by white sparks. This didn't seem to concern the Youma, who gave her a mocking look, as if to tell her to give her best shot, not even bothering with trying to stop her.

"HA!" Mercury shouted, when finally launching the orb.

The entered the Youma without any effect - at least at first. What Mercury had learned was to control its path, and right now it was stopping in the middle of the Youma, releasing its energy to all sides in pulses. At first, nothing happened. But after some seconds, the Youma seemed to become noticeably lighter.

"Ohh, aaargh! What is this?" the Youma groaned, feeling heavier by the second.

It finally became apparent that the Youma's color became lighter because it was covered in frost. The orb was radiating such coldness, that it forced him to go from a gaseous to a solid state while being slowly frozen and thus making him vulnerable. Finally the orb had done its work, turning the Youma into an icy statue.

Jupiter was about to let loose a lightning bolt, when Sailor Moon stopped her. "She is not the only one who learned something new."

They all looked in puzzlement when Sailor Moon took some deep breaths and then... **"IIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK "**

The high-pitched shriek was powerfully amplified by the now white-glowing, round jewels in her hair odangos. And while some windows showed cracks, the concentrated sonic beam hit the Youma and shattered it into icy powder almost instantly. The Senshi were quite impressed by this creative use of Moon's sound amplifiers, since they'd mostly written them off as just useful for listening in and little else.

Tuxedo Mask whistled in awe. "Well, that's quite a way to make use of a strong voice." He then picked up the box, looking at the jewel-statue. "This is definitely not what we are looking for."

It was then when they noticed that now with the danger over, people were coming out of their cover, watching them, one of them being the princess of Dia. He didn't hesitate to return it to her and noticed right then that they would make headlines when seeing someone photographing them and especially him returning the statue. Also, they only now noticed all the police officers watching them. It seemed they hadn't dared to do anything before, wisely deciding that they would be of little help against the monster.

"Eh... if you excuse us, your majesty, we need to be on our way," Sailor Moon told her lamely, before they quickly jumped over the perimeter wall and left.

It was on a nearby rooftop, where they gathered and found Ranma in a sour mood.

"Man, that really blew having to sit out the entire fight," she complained, feeling disappointed that she hadn't been able to be of any help.

"Oh, take it easy, Ranma. You'll get more than enough chances to beat up bad guys," Venus lightly told her, which earned her an annoyed look.

Sailor Moon meanwhile looked around. "Where is Naru? She missed during the fight and now she isn't here."

"Her mother got to her before she'd had any chance to transform. So she'd had to sit it out. Maybe it's better that way, since Akane didn't look that well when that jerk revealed his true colors." Ranma was surprised, some months ago she'd have not been able to think how other people would feel.

"Oh dear, I completely forgot," Moon realised, while the other Senshi wondered what was going on.

Back in the embassy meanwhile, the police was busy with trying to get some sense of order into the chaos of the aftermath. Thankfully, there were no injuries, just lots of panic and property damage. However, Naru and Akane had little eye for this right at the moment. Naru had her hands full with being there for Akane.

"I must have been stupid," Akane said, still trying to come to grips with what happened.

"You are too hard on yourself, Akane. He fooled me as well and I envied you," Naru told Akane, cursing this Nephrite for doing this to her friend.

Akane shook her head. "I know you're trying to help me, Naru. I do appreciate it. But just think how you would react in my place."

Naru had to admit, there was something to it. She would have felt pretty down as well. "I understand. He had fooled everyone, and you take it personal because you let him close."

"Someone must hate me. Me, a girl who doesn't have the best opinion about men, thinking he's an exception to the rule, only to find out that he's worse than all I've met before." She gave off a humorless laugh. "That's so wrong; and just when things were looking up for me."

"Akane?" Naru asked.

"No, I won't shut down or anything like that. I'm just incredibly disappointed and I'm also angry. I'm feeling like smashing things to let it out. With time I'll get over it," she told Naru, hoping that they could leave soon.

Naru had to admire Akane. If she'd been in her place, she'd have had a minor meltdown.

Depite this huge disappointment; this hard lesson of life, Akane wanted to go on and not let this drag her down. Perhaps all the things that had happened in her life had hardened her to a certain degree. Having been brought to the breaking point once already and then leaving the home of her childhood behind had left their imprint on her.

And while she envied Akane for this strength, she didn't want anyone suffering through her ordeal to get this strength.

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"**__**The Fall of Nephrite**__**"**_

**Notes:**

**At first I planned for Akane to react like Naru in canon, but then decided that this wouldn't fit, as Akane was a hardened girl by all the things in her life. Also, that she outright says that she doesn't think that way about Nephrite is to spite these clichè plots.**

**A cookie for who guesses what the fourth technique is.**

* * *

I found more clichès I want to avoid or already avoided:

**-Engagement-Roulette**: It was especially strange that Genma got away with countless engagements, probably the only reason was that the original was a sociopathic comedy. I took pains to show that by engaging Ranma to Ukyo, he fell into dishonor, thus making all engagements void.

**-Apathic authorities**: In both canons, the authorities were strangely apathic towards the situations. Therefore I decided that Nerima could be best solved by them stepping in. As for Minato, I did show that he police is not sleeping (although often can't help directly) and plan to expand their role.

**-Honor over everything**: One still enduring trend that is rooted in canon is Ranma overly sticking to honor, while his enemies don't. While I still make Ranma follow his personal honor, I made him learn that he's not responsible for the idiocy of others (Ryoga, Ukyo...).

**-Super-Amazons**: In many pieces of fanfic, Amazons are shown as über-powerful. I already showed how ridiculous that is in previous chapters and what they get as a result. That also subverts all other Amazon tropes.

**-Instant-success training**: In fanfics where the Senshi do get training, results show fast. Not so here. Khu-Lon makes it clear that she can only teach them the basics in reasonable time and the training is very taxing on them.

**-Past lives**: In canon and fanon, the past lives of the Senshi are creepy. The present Senshi seem to forget their own lives and only copy the past, while Usagi and Mamoru even seem to become carbon-copies of the past. I made it clear through Pluto how foolish that is, and even that Usagi and Mamoru are in danger because of it.

**-Crystal Tokyo**: That one should be clear. it's no utopia and the dire consequences are shown right at the start.


	15. The Fall of Nephrite

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

**Finally the final chapter of the Nephrite arc. The whole arc had been harder to write than I first had thought. I'm actually glad that it finally is done and over with. I seem to get better, as this time I only needed two months instead of six. Cutting it down to one month is the goal.**

**Note that specific notes are at the end of the chapter, to avoid spoilers.**

* * *

**Chapter 14: The Fall of Nephrite**

_She felt like she was like a ghost, slowly hovering above the Moon. She saw a huge, domed city with a beautiful palace in its center. It was a breathtaking view. Then, she slowly started to glide away from it._

_"You came from a long time ago, my little rabbit."_

_The city as a whole was now beneath her._

_"I will always love and never leave you, my daughter, even in the face of my own death."_

_The lunar landscape was as alien as it was familiar._

_"You were reborn to loving parents in a peaceful time, and for that I'm glad."_

_She was slowly moving away from the Moon._

_"I gave you all my remaining strength as a final gift. You'll make my strength you own. Use is wisely. Use it for good..."_

_Suddenly a cloud of complete darkness reached out for the Moon and everything fell into darkness. A darkness so unnatural and cold, that nothing could survive. And a prosperous time came to an end._

_..._

"Huh...?" Usagi needed some moments to realise that she was back in her bed at home. Sleepily looking around in her dark room, she spotted Luna sleeping peacefully on her pillow on the floor. She then realised that it had all been a dream. A dream mixed in with stuff from her former life.

She had no idea what to make of it. The others regularly had dreams of their past life - some good, some bad - and always told her that it was like reading an exciting story: you experience it but you know its not your own memory, therefore you had a healthy distance from it. She'd been even a little envious that she hadn't so far had any dreams about her past life. Up until now.

Well, as much as it could be called a past memory.

The whole thing had been weird and confusing. It certainly had not played out like a real-life event; it was more like a movie scene. Had this been the voice of the mother of her previous life? After all, she - it had been a female voice - had called her 'daughter'.

Usagi felt her head spinning. Whatever it was, it could wait until tomorrow. For now she still was tired and needed more sleep. After all the excitement at the embassy, she really needed her sleep.

* * *

_...in the Dark Kingdom..._

"So, the jewel had been a dead end. Too bad," Queen Beryl concluded after hearing Nephrite's report on the whole confrontation at the embassy. "It would have made things easier... but it doesn't matter in the long run."

Nephrite at first had been nervous when reporting to her, since the throne room seemed unusually empty, devoid of all the Youma that usually hung around. Only when seeing that the queen looked tired did he understand, that she'd already dismissed the court and was ready to retire. Her being tired had perhaps softened her reaction.

"Now go, Nephrite. I want to retire," she dismissed him.

Making a final gesture of respect, Nephrite teleported away.

Neither of them had noticed Zoisite hiding behind one of the pillars. Having hear what she wanted to, she quickly walked away, until she'd reached Kunzite's and her's rooms. "Kunzite, Nephrite of course failed. The crystal had been a dead end."

The white-haired general chuckled, while pouring himself some wine. "Very good. I want us to be the only ones to find it, so that we alone get the rewards."

"He will never find it," she replied, while accepting a glass. "I have also ordered my most trustworthy Youma to spy on him. They will report every single suspicious thing. Hm hm, considering the pressure he's under, it's only a matter of time before he slips."

"And the beauty of it is, that he won't even know until it is too late," Kunzite added.

Zoisite chuckled. "He thinks he's so powerful and knows everything. It gives me a certain satisfaction that we pull this off directly under his nose, without him knowing."

"And it give me satisfaction that this will be the sweet payback for everything he said against you," Kunzite reassured her.

"I wonder what punishment our queen will give Nephrite, once he has made the one wrong step?" Zoisite openly wondered, although it appeared she already knew.

"I don't think it is much of a mystery."

Both of them laughed darkly at the thought what fate would await their hated rival. They had no doubt that Nephrite in his growing panic to still stay in their queen's favor would do something stupid, making it easy to frame him in the process. And even if he didn't, he'd be disgraced by his failure and the thought that Jadeite would laugh into his face would be nice compensation in case Nephrite wouldn't become desperate. It was a win-win situation for them, regardless of the outcome.

Yes, this had been a really good day, and they felt the best was still to come.

* * *

_...next day, Neko-Hanten..._

"Wonder why you called me. It's not like I'm needed right now," Ranma asked Khu-Lon, while they walked down the stairs into the basement, where the training area was.

Ranma had been more than surprised, when the elder had called him over the phone to come to the Neko-Hanten after the training of the girls was over for the day. He couldn't imagine why she wanted him to be present, but he hadn't asked questions and simply arrived as asked and that was where he was right at the moment.

He was still a bit sour over yesterday. First the whole deal of having to wear a dress as a disguise, then having to fend off pimple-faced teenagers and having to watch the fight instead of getting involved. On top of that, the bad guy got away, the whole thing had been pointless anyway and Akane was angry. Yes, Ranma just wanted to forget the previous day.

"Oh, it's nothing like that. It's just that the girls are more likely to listen to you when it comes to combat analysis and I will be a bit busy," the elder cryptically told him.

Ranma really wondered what she meant, until the door opened up and he was greeted with the sight of Sailor Pluto standing in the middle of the big training mat, acting as if it was the most normal thing in the world. That they saw her so soon was surprising, since it had been just yesterday when they'd told her of the false lead with the crystal at the embassy. The girls looked a bit nervous about what could happen next and Xian-Pu seemed a bit uncomfortable with the woman's presence. Ranma slowly understood why she wanted him here.

"I see we are now complete," Pluto said, looking so utterly relaxed that it was suspicious.

Ranma finally couldn't stand it any long. "All right, what exactly is going on?"

"Oh, not much. Just when I visited after training was done to talk about some details with elder Khu-Lon, some of the girls commented off-hand that it was unfair that they have to work out while I don't," Pluto lightly explained, barely able to hide how much she was anticipating what was to come.

"Not me!" Ami hastily said, before noticing what she was doing. "Eh... I meant that they didn't believe me what you said concerning Pluto."

Ranma did remember. His schooled eye had caught right away that Pluto was holding herself like a schooled and very experienced fighter. He would never dare to underestimate her, especially since he could also see that she was hiding some of her potential. No, as peaceful and not threatening Sailor Pluto appeared and mostly actually was, she was very capable of fighting. That was something the other girls had obviously not understood and now would get a reminder of.

"You want me to observe a fight between you and her and then explain to them what happened?" Ranma guessed, feeling really eager to finally see the oldest Senshi in action to see her fighting style.

"You got it, sonny," Khu-Lon said, while Pluto remained silent. "All of you are in for a real treat. A taste of what you can be capable if you keep up with training for years."

"Wouldn't that be unfair?" Minako suddenly interrupted her. "I mean, she has her magic to sustain her and..."

Pluto held up a hand to silence Minako. "Of course I have my magic, yet I will not use it for offensive or defensive measures in this fight. And think about it: your magic just makes you as endurable enough for these fights the same way that Ranma's training did. So I won't have any advantage against Khu-Lon."

"And what if you aren't...?" Usagi began, but then stopped herself.

Pluto however could guess what she had tried to ask. "You mean when I'm not transformed? Of course I won't have my magic then, but like Ranma I managed through hard training to store life energy inside myself, so even when not transformed I can fight the same, even if I do not look that way."

"That's a secret I want to learn. Any more muscles and I start to look like a bodybuilder," Makoto grumbled, annoyed that Pluto had managed to keep such a feminine figure, while she herself was struggling with getting too muscular.

"Well, enough chatter! Let this get started!" Khu-Lon called.

And with that, the fight was on and the girls couldn't help but stare at it with their mouths open in awe. They were double surprised. They of course had doubted that Pluto could be a physical fighter, since all the time she had done nothing physical. And now they saw that she was actually good. REALLY good. The second surprise was Khu-Lon. They hadn't expected the elder to much of a fighter anymore, considering her very high age. Cue in the nasty surprise when seeing that for looking so frail, the old woman proved to be of devastating skill.

Watching the fight, Ranma was busy with analyzing the two women.

He had already expected that the old ghoul would be good, despite her high age. It was very interesting to see how she was compensating the shortcomings of her old body, which made him glad that he didn't have to fight against her for real. Right now he wasn't skilled enough to win such a fight. That actually gave him a very good lesson to not dismiss an opponent just by their age. And watching Khu-Lon using her wooden walking stick as a weapon drove the point home that she was from a society where fighting power was the norm.

Sailor Pluto was even more fascinating. From the way the woman held herself, one would see a dignified person who could never possibly fight. Big error. Ranma had to admit that Pluto can bend her body in ways that would make most acrobats and gymnasts green with envy. She also knew quite well how to use that staff of hers as a weapon. And watching her then stand upside-down on one hand while whirling around and delivering nasty kicks, he knew that she had an amazing body control and was very good and beating down the embarrassment at the exposure this stance was causing.

Both of them were in a league of their own.

As good as he was, right now Ranma didn't want to get into a fight with either of these women, as much as he hated to admit it. Their rapid dance of staff strikes, fists and kicks was proof of their sheer experience. Part of it was since he suspected they had more destructive techniques up their sleeves but wouldn't use them here. They also seemed fairly even matched, getting no crushing advantage over the other.

The girls were simply amazed that the elegant Lady Pluto could get this down and dirty in a fight. It pretty much drove the point home why there should be another reason they should have a healthy respect for her. Just looking at her, they knew that even without using her magic she could cream all of them in an all-against-her fight. It also was a sobering thought that if Pluto was keeping that back for really hard enemies, they wondered how difficult it would get.

Finally the fight was over and Pluto right away brushed her long hair back into place before observing the girls and giving them a smile when seeing how impressed they looked. "You still think I need training?

None of the girls said anything, looking at her in astonishment.

Pluto had wholly expected this reaction. After all, no one would suspect her being a fighter, as dignified as she was. Of course she wouldn't say that it took centuries for her to get to this point, since she had been quite a slacker for the longest time regarding physical combat, until getting the lesson herself - in the form of getting her ass kicked severely.

Ranma then noticed Xian-Pu not looking too surprised. "You seem to take this awfully well."

Xian-Pu shook her head. "I knew Great-Grandmother all my life, so that was no surprise to me. And Lady Pluto had beaten the snot out of several young warriors when she visited my village, so no surprise there, either."

"Why would she do that?" Ranma wondered, since after all Pluto didn't seem like a mean woman.

Xian-Pu snorted. "These arrogant cows openly insulted her constantly until she'd had enough. Everyone gave her respect after she was through with them, hanging them upside-down and naked aside from countless bruises from the challenge log. These three really made themselves rare after this."

Ranma winced. He did remember that stupid log which had almost made Xian-Pu bash his head in with a mace. Although the idea of three young women being hung upside-down from the log while completely naked was strangely funny. "You don't sound too sorry for them."

"Well, I don't! They tormented me for years, so it was nice to finally see someone beating the shit out of them and put humiliation on top of it," Xian-Pu said, her smirk showing how much she'd enjoyed seeing this.

Ranma was still thinking at how much more complex Pluto was, when he heard her call: "Well, Ranma, now it's your turn to explain it to them."

The girls groaned, feeling that it now would be more like a long and boring lecture, while Ranma looked like he'd just won the grand prize.

* * *

_...Monday, July 10th, school..._

With the start of Monday, school was back and after all the excitement of the weekend, everyone agreed that school would be best to get back to the ground and go on with their lives. After all, you didn't live alone for being a hero. Even though most of them didn't like going to school - something for which Ami had given them a look of annoyance - the routine felt good, as it was something familiar.

Inside the classroom of the class were Ranma was, the students were relaxing and chatting among themselves while they waited for Ms. Haruna to appear for the roll call and English class, which was the first class of the day. However, it was still over ten minutes before she'd arrive and the students wouldn't let the time go to waste.

In the middle of that, Naru Osaka couldn't help but to watch her friends.

Ranma and Makoto looked like they were bursting with energy while talking about something involving a martial arts stance. It was no wonder they looked so awake, since both of them were early risers and liked to begin the day with activity; Ranma by sparring with his father and Makoto by jogging for several kilometers. She'd never understand how someone could enjoy such activity at the morning, but then again, she was no sports nut and didn't have the right mindset.

Her eyes then fell onto Usagi, who was a complete contrast to these two. She still looked sleepy and also a bit annoyed. Ever since Akane had started living with her family, it had improved Usagi's sleeping habits. From what she'd heard, Akane had made true of her threat of waking her up with a bucket of cold water one morning. Ever since then, Usagi no longer protested, since she now knew it was no empty threat. Still, Usagi didn't actually like it; not being a morning person.

And speaking of Akane... Naru had to admit, the girl was holding up much better than she would have in such a situation when seeing her talking animatedly with the class representative. Akane was deeply disappointed but not depressed, had said that while she felt hurt, she wouldn't let this drag her down. Naru had to admire this - and at the same time felt sad, since it were the events in her past that had hardened Akane and made her who she's now.

Seeing that her friends were occupied, she let her view go trough the classroom.

She then spotted Ukyo. The girl had not tried to speak with either of them at all ever since that day where her energy had been stolen by a Youma. Perhaps it was better this way, as she felt that it could quickly lead to nasty words being exchanged. Yet, Naru couldn't help but to see how lonely the girl looked, and she also could have sworn to see a bit of remorse in her eyes when seeing Ukyo watch Ranma. Perhaps she'd finally become aware that she'd alienated a possible friend.

Naru shook her head. It was a bit depressing to see Ukyo this miserable. Perhaps she should approach her sometime?

Putting that at the back of her mind, her eyes landed on Umino, who right now was busy with typing something on his laptop. Naru by now had given up on guessing what he was doing, since that would be futile. She'd known him for years and he was still good for a surprise. Speaking of surprises... Naru couldn't help but to blink when she saw him taking off his thick glasses to rub his eyes. Strangely enough, she never in all these years had seen him without them and it was quite a contrast.

Intrigued, she approached him. "Uhm, Umino?"

Umino blinked and put his glasses back on. "Oh, hello Naru."

Naru wondered for a moment how she should ask her question, She could hardly tell him that he looked surprisingly good without his ultra-thick glasses. "I just noticed that you've worn the same style of glasses since elementary school. Is your eyesight really that bad?"

"To be honest, I have no idea," Umino honestly answered, wondering why Naru would ask.

Naru blinked. "You have no idea?"

"Yes, my mother said one day that I obviously need them like she and my father do. It's been like this ever since and they get me new glasses if I outgrow them," he explained, seeing nothing wrong with that.

Naru couldn't believe this explanation. "And you've never seen a ophthalmologist to test your vision?"

"Should I have?" Umino asked, oblivious.

Naru wondered again how stupid his parents had to be, just to guess that Umino's sight problems would be the same as theirs and that they'd know best without ever getting his eyes checked in the first place. His occasional trouble with reading things now made much more sense. She wondered what was worse: his parents being that stupid, or him being oblivious to the problem despite his high intelligence.

"It can't hurt can it?" Naru suggests, trying hard to not appear too pushy.

Umino seemed to think about it for a moment. "Maybe I do that tomorrow. I have these glasses for some time now and they start to feel old and worn."

"Just do so. Perhaps the results surprise you," she said, then saw Ms. Haruna entering. She quickly walked over to her own desk for the start of class.

Everyone felt that it would be the start of another, boring school day.

Naru couldn't help but to look to Umino one final time during roll call. _He actually does look good, especially without these ridiculous glasses._

* * *

_...a bit later that day..._

Nephrite was pacing and he was in a very bad mood.

That perhaps was because he wasn't in the best of shapes, either. The dreams had intensified over the last days, robbing him of what little sleep he could get. While the dreams had been bad before, ever since the fiasco at the embassy, they'd become sheer torture and his lack of sleep was slowly draining him of his energy.

They were all dreams of his role in the fall of the Earth Kingdom and the Silver Millennium, things he already knew but were slapped into his face with brute force. And yet he still had no clue about the why. He knew there was a meaning to these dreams, but yet it still eluded him, much to his complete frustration. It helped little to lift his already bad mood, since it now only was a short time before Jadeite would start his big plan, leaving him with the disgrace of failure. And the worst was, there was nothing he could do against it, as there was no time left to gather the needed energy.

Another headache shot through his skull, reminding him of his lack of sleep.

_Great, lack of sleep is slowly driving me insane and I'm about to fail big time. How much worse can things get? _he wondered.

Finally sitting down, he pulled out the Black Crystal. _And I thought that it could give me a fast success... _He then stopped when noticing that the crystal had gathered some energy.

"That's interesting," he said to himself, when checking what had happened, as he'd completely forgotten to do so. "It has come into contact with traces of the energy signature of the Silver Crystal."

That was interesting, since the Silver Crystal was perhaps his final chance to save face, but he'd given up on finding it, feeling that it was a wild goose chase after the most recent failure. This new discovery however re-ignited his hopes, since it was the closest they'd yet to come to the crystal. It was a chance he wouldn't waste.

"Crystal, show me the one."

The air over the upper tip of the crystal wavered, showing exactly the time when it had detected the energy traces of the Silver Crystal. To say that Nephrite was surprised was an understatement, since it showed him dancing with Akane Tendo in the embassy. He never would have suspected her to have any connection to the Silver Crystal.

That however put him into a dilemma, since while checking out this lead was worth everything, he was less eager to again meet the girl after the confrontation at the embassy. After the whole thing had been over, he'd felt surprisingly bad about how things had turned out. He had seen the look she'd given him, before he'd disappeared. For someone who had nothing against killing people, this was surprising.

Still, he reasoned, if he didn't do anything, he'd surely be in heaps of trouble with their queen, and he didn't want to risk that.

_Perhaps checking her without her noticing is possible,_ he thought.

The other Generals would have laughed at the idea that he, Nephrite, didn't want to get caught spying on a girl. If it weren't such a serious situation, he would find the humor in it. He also couldn't have known that his search would be futile anyway, since the traces had been on Akane because she had been in regular contact with Usagi, living at her house and all that.

o

The sky was slightly overcast, but the weather forecast had said it would stay dry and the temperatures were pleasant, so many of the students of the Juban Highschool were enjoying their lunch break outside, which 'recovering' from the tiring experience that school life was. Even girls with magic powers or martial artists were not immune to the draining effect it had.

Near one tree, Ranma was enjoying his lunch, while listening to Ami's recount of her recent training sessions with Khu-Lon. He just wished that they would learn the basics soon, so that the elder would show him these ultra-advanced techniques. Ranma was mighty glad that he didn't train together with the girls after hearing that they were doing so in the nude. While he was physically turning into a girl, his mind stayed male and he would not be able to stay in a room full of naked girls - whom he on top of that all personally knew - without having a complete meltdown.

Although while he felt he'd still act like an idiot, the idea of seeing Ami in her birthday suit, like he'd done once by accident, was certainly tempting. His sleep as of late was visited by dreams of him and Ami doing things he'd thought belong into these hentai manga the other boys were reading. It was especially weird during the week locked as a girl. Up to now he'd managed to get through these nights without... manual assistance, although he knew it was only a matter of time until he'd do that.

In a way, Ami was glad for the current training arrangements as well, since right now, the idea of Ranma seeing her in the nude - although he already had done so on accident during her first transformation - was making her blush. This was not helped by some VERY interesting dreams she'd had recently. Sure, she'd never seen Ranma naked, but seeing him in nothing but his boxers had been quite the treat as well, not to speak of how often he trained shirtless. Her imagination did the rest to conjure... interesting dreams.

Ami thought of herself as a good girl, but her imagination as of lately was determined to prove to her, that she was a closet pervert. Heavily X-rated dreams had become a regular occurrence for her. If that went on for much longer, her mother was bound to ask questions when seeing the laundry and the unusual amount of panties. Yet, even though she knew there was a way to release the tension, she couldn't yet bring herself to do so. After all, she was a good girl, and as such was not supposed to that.

The others meanwhile were enjoying lunch break as well.

Naru, Minako and Makoto were sitting together, being busy with exchanging gossip, while Usagi was more concerned with her lunch and only gave a comment now and then. They'd accepted that there simply were some times were it was best to leave Ranma and Ami alone. That was not only for the sake of Ranma and Ami, but also for their own. Although they of course were happy for these two, it sometimes was good to not be constantly reminded that Ami was the only of them who had a boyfriend.

Akane was missing from their circle. The girl had said that while she enjoyed having friends around her, she wanted to have a little alone-time today.

That was, why Akane was currently walking to a rather secluded part of the yard, where no other students were around, to enjoy a peaceful lunch. She was mostly over the events of some days ago. While she still felt stupid how easy it had been to fool her, the prominent emotions were disappointment and the reminder, that life simply wasn't fair.

She did not notice someone watching from the bushes.

Nephrite had wondered when would be the best time to check out the girl and logically should have waited until night time, since he had through research found out were she was currently staying, but his impatience made him try an earlier attempt. He didn't even have to get that close to her, just close enough that the Black Crystal could do a more thorough check. Of course, he still had no idea what to do in case it was a positive.

Good thing that the girl had decided to have her lunch break at such a secluded part of the school, making things easier for him.

Taking out the crystal, he silently went a little closer, until he felt confident that it would be close for a through scan of her body. Trying to make no sound, he tried to now find out, if there was anything true about his theory. However, while the crystal was scanning her, he became disappointed. While she still had the faint traces on her, something he still couldn't explain to himself, she clearly didn't hold the crystal in her body.

However, he wasn't as discreet as he'd thought he was.

At first Akane had just felt a little strange, as if a strange wind was brushing her. And while she was in no way in Ranma's league as a martial artist, she was skilled enough to have a higher awareness of her surroundings. And right now she could tell by a very faint reflection in a window, that there was someone else present. She carefully put down her chopsticks, before suddenly jumping up, aiming a kick at whoever that was, since no one friendly would try to sneak up at her.

"Woah!" **-Crash-** Akane knew she wasn't the best, but no person without serious training could dodge that quickly, causing her to fall onto her butt.

Looking up, she saw someone she'd wished she wouldn't. "You! Didn't you get enough of making a fool out of me?"

Akane knew that this was quite stupid after what she'd seen some days ago, but she couldn't help it. Once her anger would get the better of her - like now - rational thought had it hard to get through. She was working on it, but right now the smart thing, running away, didn't come to her mind. Instead, her eyes focused on the man, her gaze hardening.

Nephrite had expected fear of him after she'd seen him commanding a monster, but not anger. "Look, I... I didn't..." he stammered, trying to come up with an answer to this unexpected situation.

"Didn't try to hurt me?" Akane snorted. "You did a really great job at that. Could have just stayed away from me."

Nephrite hadn't expected this reply, either. After all, he could have stayed away. "No, I didn't..."

She didn't give him the chance to continue. "Yes, you didn't think. You just wanted to enjoy yourself and didn't think about how I'd feel if I get out who you really are."

Nephrite knew she was right. "I... I have no excuse. But the opinions I told you were really the truth. I just thought... we wouldn't see each other again in the future anyway."

Akane was weary, after all this was someone from the Dark Kingdom. On the other hand, he'd had enough time already to dispose of her, yet he didn't. "That doesn't make it right. You do remember what I told you the first time we met?"

"Trust, loyalty and honesty. I haven't forgotten. Again... I have no excuse."

Akane could only shake her head. Despite the fact this man was an enemy, it was a bit pitiful to see him act almost as nervous as a teenage boy. "Why are you doing these things? Don't you care at all about how much suffering you are causing? Why would you willingly do this?"

"I... I..." Nephrite had no answer to this, only his headache suddenly became way stronger, as if his head was ready to explode. It was as im something had been set free inside his head and...

**"HEY YOU! What are you doing here?"**

Akane looked to her side to see someone approaching, namely Ukyo. Akane didn't know what the girl was doing here, but she didn't look very happy. However, when she turned her head back to Nephrite, he was gone without a trace. Looking around, Akane couldn't even spot where he'd vanished to and guessed that he'd used magic to escape.

"Where did he go? He suddenly disappeared into thin air!" Ukyo said, while looking around.

In a way Akane was glad that Ukyo had interrupted them, since she'd had no idea how things would have continued. "Why are you so steamed?"

"How would you react if you see a stranger confronting a girl in a secluded part of the school yard?" Ukyo asked her, looking at her as if that had been a stupid question. Ukyo had by now forgotten her brief meeting with Nephrite.

Akane was a little surprised. Ukyo had avoided talking to any of Ranma's friends, which included her, after the incident with the Youma. She had obviously felt embarrassed and was trying to save face. Personally, she didn't know what to make of the girl. Ukyo seemed to have given up on any ideas of getting her revenge, but otherwise seemed a little lost; just living through the school day without attracting much attention.

Akane nodded to that. "Good point. For a moment I had feared you wouldn't do it because it was me." She knew right away that this had been the wrong thing to say when Ukyo looked hurt.

"Just because I have no personal dealings with you doesn't mean I would enjoy you getting hurt by some weirdo." Before Akane could reply, Ukyo left.

_I and my big mouth. She did look quite hurt by that comment,_ Akane cursed herself.

She knew she would have to tell the others about Nephrite, but she decided to keep Ukyo out of it. Since the girl hadn't done anything wrong since the initial trouble, Akane felt that she deserved to be left out of the whole thing.

* * *

_...at night..._

_"We are being called to the courtyard. I really wonder what this is about, since Endymion is currently on the Moon. You think it's again that nutty red-head noble?" Jadeite wondered aloud, while they walked down the corridor to the northern courtyard._

_That yard was particularly out of the way and only few visited it, even during the day. Why Lady Beryl had asked for them, they had no idea. They however didn't like meeting the woman. Ever since the Prince had turned down Beryl's offer of courtship, the woman had become increasingly irritating to deal with. They all hoped it wouldn't take too much time._

_"Relax! We'll just find a convenient excuse to keep it short," Zoisite told the men._

_"Endymion made it clear to her that he's courting Princess Serenity. Why does she insist on wasting her time?" Kunzite wondered, shaking his head at such foolishness._

_"Well, unlike you, she has horrible people skills," Zoisite sweet-talked, giving Kunzite a smile. The other two snorted at this blatant display, but they'd gotten used to it over the years._

_"Better be quiet, there she is," Nephrite said, when they reached the northern courtyard, where Lady Beryl was waiting._

_She looked even more arrogant than usual and the Generals really wondered why she insisted on always carrying that long, golden scepter with the crystal ball on top with her. They guessed it was to make herself more important than she actually was. What was disconcerting however was, that instead of her usual looks of anger, she seemed to look downright happy._

_"Lady Beryl, you want to meet with us?" Kunzite asked her, being the highest in rank of the four._

_"Oh yes. Very nice of you that you want to meet with me," she told them._

_All of a sudden, the crystal ball, which they'd thought to be a harmless prop, erupted in something that could only be described as black light, swallowing all of them in under a second, giving them no time to react or to call for help._

_The scene changed..._

_"They will soon find out that we are missing. You won't get far!" Zoisite shouted to Beryl; and effect that was somewhat ruined by the enchanted chains holding her._

_They were in a sparsely dungeon cell of what they were sure was Beryl's mansion, having woken up after the strange black light in chains down in this cell. They didn't have any idea about the why, but Beryl had visited them only a little later and seemed very amused by Zoisites outburst of anger towards her._

_"Now they won't," she calmly told them, "no one will miss you for several days. I made sure of that."_

_This did little to calm them down. Jadeite was especially red with anger. "What in the name of the Abyss do you want from us?"_

_Beryl chuckled. "Oh, a time of change is about to happen, and you will be on the forefront of it."_

_"You must be really sick in the head if you think we will help you with whatever you plan to do," Nephrite spat._

_Beryl's chuckles now became downright menacing. "I didn't say that you will have a choice in this."_

_The scene changed again..._

_"Finally you have the power we need. Now we just need those to lead you into battle so that you can serve our Great Master!" she announced to the gathered new-born Youma, then turned towards the four unwilling guests of the whole event, raising her scepter, which now looked more like made of bone than gold._

_"Yes, Queen Beryl!" the crowd of Youma cheered, while watching what would happen next._

_The four captured Generals had been horrified at the disgusting transformation these people had willingly went through, turning them into the opposite of life; twisted and evil. And Beryl's comment was hint enough what she intended for them. And they also had a good idea what would happen next, but that didn't stop them from speaking up._

_"We will never follow you willingly! We will resist you with all our strength!" Kunzite spat is disgust._

_Beryl laughed. "Who said that I am giving you a choice?"_

_Walking closer, she showed them her dark glowing crystal ball. "You minds... It is everything you see, hear or think. It is everything..." She then put on a nasty smile. "How would you know, if someone alters your mind?"_

_There was a burst from the crystal ball, and then... darkness._

_..._

"Ah! No... NO!" Nephrite gasped.

It had been hours since he'd teleported back to his hideout. These simple words the girl had given him had triggered something in him - something that had been growing for some time now. The quickly rising pressure in his head had made him black out in the main room under the moving stars of his starfield mechanism.

And then, the dreams had come.

"This can't be true! Never! This can't be!" he gasped, bathed in sweat.

There was no answer at first, until the stars lit up and bathed him in their gentle light. Holding his head, he trembled when the stars, which hadn't communicated with him for a long time, finally were sharing their wisdom with him. But what they told him was not what he had expected. It was as if there had been a wall in his mind and after a hole had appeared in it, the stars were using it to tear down the entire wall. It all smashed into him without mercy.

However, instead of trashing on the ground in pain, he was just looking blankly into the stars while it washed over him. His life, pledging loyalty to King Endymion, seeing the prince grow up, being a good friend to him instead of just doing his official business. Finally, his memories from these horrible events returned in full and it was like looking from the outside how he'd acted after his mind got altered. He finally understood.

"What have I done?"

Nephrite couldn't believe that he, who had sworn to protect Earth from its enemies, could have done such a thing. Yet, the truth was undeniable: he had become a traitor. Maybe not of his own will, but still a traitor. And he had destroyed everything which he'd sworn to protect.

"I'm such a bastard."

It would have been so simple to say that it hadn't been him - that his mind had been altered. But even though that was true, a part of him was responsible for all these things he had done under Beryl. And he also knew why he was the only one of the four who had broken out of it. His special connection to the stars had ensured that mind was not completely closed off, and the stars were trying to open his eyes to the truth, making the control Beryl had over his mind very thin. The words from this girl had put a crack into that control which had widened over time.

On his own he would have never managed to free himself and part of him shamefully wished it would have stayed that way, since now he was confronted with the results of everything he'd done while being turned. It wasn't pretty at all.

Trying to get himself to get up, Nephrite felt ashamed about his weakness.

It would be useless to drown in regret; the damage had already been done. The only way for him to make up for all what he had done would be, throw himself at the mercy of the Senshi and reveal all he knew to them. And Endymion... Oh yes, Nephrite now had no doubt that that man in evening wear which Jadeite had reported was in fact the reborn prince. Only with him back to normal, he made the connection, the others obviously had forgotten in the bitterness that had poisoned their minds.

Problem was... how to contact the Senshi?

It was not that he knew their phone number. Also, they'd hardly trust him, since he after all was the enemy. And trying to do something to get their attention would surely arouse the interest of the Dark Kingdom. On the other hand, they would be soon after him anyway so he'd only prolong the inevitable for a short time. So it was back to giving them a signal they couldn't miss and pray they'd be there first.

Feeling around in his pocket, he took out the Black Crystal, looking at it. As much as he'd have loved to smash it right there, he'd built it too well and the power needed would expose him right away. "I can't destroy it right now, nor can I allow the others to get their hands onto it. Guess I will have to give it to the Senshi."

_But before I do all that, I have to do one last thing, _he decided, feeling his honor commanded him to do so.

He had not noticed a spy watching him.

Appearing on the street near a residential home, Nephrite saw that the lights in the house, apart from the room directly under the roof, were already out, meaning that its inhabitants were already sleeping. Holding the crystal, he checked for the energy signature of the girl, which still was stored inside the crystal's memory, and found her in the one still lit room directly under the roof.

He decided he would keep it short, since there wasn't much time.

Teleporting up to the roof, an outsider would have found it amazing how this man could stand on the roof gutter without causing it to collapse under his weight. Looking to the window, he saw that it open and the curtains were closed but he could see a shadow sitting at a desk directly at the window. And judging by her sudden movement, she had noticed him as well.

"Do not open your curtains. I won't take much of your time," he told her.

On the other side of the curtains, Akane wondered what he wanted here and how he even knew where she lived. She was very tempted to run for help, but then considered that he'd had already many opportunities to harm her, so she'd listen, regardless how stupid of a decision this seemed to be right now.

"What do you have to say?" she asked a bit more coldly than she had intended.

"You asked me why I did these things, if I don't care about the suffering I cause. I can finally answer your question: I do care. I care so much that I can't do it any longer," he told her.

"What?" Akane thought she hadn't heard right.

"I was not myself, my mind altered by outside forces, but that is no excuse for everything what I have done in that time. I am here so that I can confess that I do regret that I led you on and lied to you. I couldn't live with myself not to tell you, before it is too late," Nephrite told her further.

Akane gulped hard. This suddenly had taken a very different turn. "Before it is too late?"

"Yes. I can no longer do all this. I will surrender to the Senshi in the park, sending them a signal to find me. I hope that's before the other ones find me. Please don't try to find me. I do not want you to get caught in a potential crossfire. Please stay safe." With that said, he vanished from the roof.

Akane stood there for a moment, before racing down the stairs to Usagi's room.

She knew she had to warn them right away so that they hopefully had a chance to reach the park before the Dark Kingdom could. She knew somehow that this was genuine and Nephrite was in serious danger. She might still not like him, but even he didn't deserve to die - especially after what he had revealed to her moments ago.

She had no idea that everything had been listened in to by a spy, who now hastily made a retreat home to report the findings.

* * *

_...only minutes later..._

"Are you absolutely sure?" Queen Beryl hissed, her mood having gone sour as soon as the news had reached her.

"Yes, my queen!" Kunzite confirmed. "Our spy has confirmed that Nephrite has decided to abandon us and hand himself over to the Senshi. There is no telling how much damage this could do to us if he tells them everything he knows. I swear on my personal honor to you that it is the truth."

The confirmation sent a shudder of fear through the crowd of gathered Youma when the eyes of their queen started to glow an angry yellow and electrical charges arced over the surface of her crystal ball - witness of her exteme anger. Some Youma cowered away and it seemed energy could blast out, until finally Beryl got her temper back in check for the matter at hand.

Beryl knew, that such a vow from Kunzite was dead serious, and as such it could only be the truth. She did have a good idea what could have happened that made Nephrite to abandon her. That couldn't be tolerated, so an example had to be made of Nephrite. It wouldn't be a big loss, Nephrite had made himself replaceable due to is constant blunders. She could easily compensate for his loss with her three remaining Generals.

"Jadeite!" she called "Before my throne! Right now!"

It took only several seconds for Jadeite to appear before Queen Beryl. He looked around and right away saw the tense mood in the room and the other two present Generals. He right away knew that something big must have happened and that this was why he had been called by his queen. He quickly fell into position beside his fellow Generals.

"You have called, my queen?" he asked.

"Now that all three of you are here... Nephrite has decided to commit treason and wants to change sides. I can not tolerate such treachery! You three will get him back to me! Alive!" she commanded them. "Should you kill him and deprive me of punishing him personally, you will be severely punished yourselves! Now go!"

At these news, all three of the Generals smirked, before teleporting away.

After all, all three of them had one reason or another to severely dislike Nephrite and now they had the chance to get rid of him and the competetion he represented. Zoisite and Kunzite were jubilant that their plan had bore fruit, while Jadeite felt a deep inner satisfaction that Nephrite would now finally pay for all the insults and his arrogance.

o

"I hope we can reach him in time! It's really difficult to not notice this kind of signal!" Sailor Ceres groaned, while they were running into the park.

She was right in, that a huge, glowing ball of stars over the park was difficult to miss. Nephrite's signal had been a bit too obvious and it had alerted not only them. They could already hear the police sirens. They could only hope that the police were smart enough to not enter the park and let them deal with the problem at hand. Considering past events, the police should keep out of it.

Right now, Moon, Ceres, Jupiter and Mercury were together in a group while going deeper into the park. Venus had called them over the communicator that she'd meet up with them shortly, while Mars had the longest way to go and therefore would be last to arrive. They had no idea when to expect Ranma. Ami had insisted to call him over the phone (as he didn't have a communicator) but they had no idea when he would arrive. Mamoru hadn't picked up his phone, but they had no idea what it could mean.

Compared to the brightly lit city surrounding it, the park itself was only sparsely lit by lantern posts, putting most of it into a twilight. What normally would create a romantic atmosphere now was a darkness and twilight out of which any kind of enemy could attack them all of a sudden. Even Mercury could point her visor with her scanning equipment in only so many directions after all.

"It's not that far anymore!" Mercury called to them, checking the area ahead. "Just several hundred meters. We'll meet the others there."

"I don't like this. There's no cover, we'd be like sitting ducks," Jupiter cursed.

"Nice of you to tell me this."

They stopped dead when hearing someone saying this. All of a sudden a shadow appeared in their way, yet three of them knew this voice only too well. When the shadows peeled back, they revealed someone they would've loved to never see again.

"Ahh! Jadeite!" Sailor Moon gasped in fear, having not expected him to appear.

Jadeite chuckled when seeing this reaction. "Good that you remember me, must have been really boring during my absence."

"Don't be stupid! We'd miss you as much as cavities," Ceres growled, seeing Jadeite really wasn't good for her nerves, as some memories of her previous life returned to the surface.

This only seemed to make Jadeite's ego grow even more. "Oh, and my favorite Senshi is here. I again have to disappoint you that I left my sword at home. Not that it will matter in the end, you won't get to Nephrite in time."

Out of the four Senshi present, Jupiter had never met Jadeite in person, only heard stories of him. Seeing how her three fellow Senshi tensed up when seeing him told her right away that this guy was bad news for them. That, and his arrogant smirk and demeanor was pushing all her buttons. Yet, she kept her anger at bay when she saw what Jadeite was doing.

"He's stalling us! Spread out, he can't keep back all of us!" she called to the others.

"Oh no, you won't!" Jadeite called, when seeing them start to run off in four different directions, raising his hands to cast his spells.

Suddenly a huge, thorny wall of bushes emerged in front of Moon, threatening to engulf her. Ceres was stopped by earthern hands growing out of the ground and grabbing her by the ankles. Jupiter suddenly had to battle with some metal artwork having come to life and chasing her around, snapping at her with razor-sharp metal teeth. Only Mercury managed to vanish into the darkness of the night further towards the center of the park, escaping Jadeite.

Jadeite looked a little disappointed. "Well, the three of us can still have fun together."

It was then, when the pain started.

On almost the other side of the park meanwhile, Sailor Mars and Venus had finally arrived and managed to slip by the police. Running as fast as they could, they hoped to arrive in time so that they could meet up with the others. That however was made more complicated when suddenly a seriously flat-chested (at least as far as they could tell with the uniform) woman appeared out of nowhere, blocking their path.

"Oh no, don't you know the park is closed at night?" she mockingly told them.

Taking a step backwards, they had little difficulty to see that it was a foe, thanks to the uniform that identified her as a General from the Dark Kingdom, although they had no idea who exactly she was supposed to be. She seemed to take the whole thing as a game and slowly advanced towards them.

"However, I can't allow you to give Nephrite any aid," she said further.

"So what do you want to do against it?" Mars spat.

Venus could only hope that this wouldn't be an error. "Mars..."

The woman seemed really amused by the threat. "How cute! Oh, but I forgot... Before I spank your cute butts, I have to tell you my name. I'm Zoisite, one of the Generals of the Dark Kingdom... As for what I can do... ZOI!"

They all of a sudden were engulfed in a storm of flower petals. It would have been funny, if not for the fact that these petals were hitting them like fists and forced them to run away from Zoisite. They had been lucky that these petals hadn't been as sharp as razor blades. Her laughter echoed through the night while she gave chase.

That all wasn't noticed by two other people making their way into the park.

Ranma still didn't exactly like turning female on purpose, but she had to admit, some situations simply called for it. And right now the combination of her being a girl and wearing her ridiculous ninja outfit made sure that no one would recognise her. Yet, that was not what was occupying her mind. Instead, the lack of Senshi combined with the faint sounds of battle in the distance made clear that the others were busy. However, Ami had made been insistent over the phone that their first priority was to protect Nephrite from getting killed.

Ranma didn't like at all that the girls, and especially Ami, were left in danger, but she knew that Ami hadn't said this lightly. Jumping from tree to tree, she could see the flashing lights of police cars outside the park. It meant at least that no one else would be hurt. Then finally closing in on the center of the park, Ranma finally saw her target, when she noticed someone else approaching the same way as her, finally landing beside her on the tree. The outfit left no doubt who it was.

"Nice jumps," she commented to Tuxedo Mask. "Seems the stupid outfit is good for something after all."

"It buffs me up nicely, so I won't complain," he replied, then looked around. "I got a strange feeling that I'm needed here and I'm sure it has something to do with Endymion. What's exactly going on, especially with this thing here?"

Ranma looked at the fading star ball, then shook her head. "From what I was told, Nephrite had a sudden change of heart and wants to give up. No idea if that's true, but we will find out. He's down there."

Looking down, Mask spotted the lone man waiting, while constantly looking around. "That explains it. Since he was close to Endymion, some of the connections still seems to be there... There's someone coming."

Jumping down, they were about to confront whoever it was, when they saw that it was Mercury. "Where are the others?" Ranma asked, worried. It was not like Ami to leave the others.

"We got separated... Jadeite suddenly appeared and tried to stop us," she told them, while catching her breath. "They are dealing with him... We should better move on."

That she was so short on words proved how serious the situation was. Not losing any time, they made their way towards Nephrite, always on their guard. The Dark Kingdom General finally noticed them and it seemed that seeing Tuxedo Mask gave him new energy. However, just before they could reach him, dark energy ripped out of the ground, surrounding them in a dome of dark energy and cutting them off from getting any closer.

"Oh no, you won't..."

"Kunzite!" Nephrite managed to get out, when he saw the white-haired General appear. Even though he knew he would lose, he did prepare himself for a confrontation. "If you want me dead, you will be in a hell of a fight!"

"Oh, don't worry. Our queen wants you alive." The a sinister smirk appeared on his features. "She however had said nothing about not roughing you up."

That said, the battle was on.

Back with Jadeite, the General was still having his fun. Since he just had to delay then Senshi he didn't waste too much energy in his attacks, so the three of them were just bruised, Moon roughed up by a thorny hedge and Jupiter's leg was bleeding from where the animated artwork had sunk its teeth into her. He had the time of his life, but he also had become rather careless.

"Just as I though, three teenage brats who just think they can play the hero," he mocked them, while using his telekinetic powers to throw a park bench at Ceres.

"Brats?" Moon whined, while running from a thorn bush.

"Shut your trap!" Ceres hissed, while finally using her sickle to cut off the earthern hands that had held her and barely jumped out of the way of the big projectile. "Or better, I shut it for you!"

She had never really managed to find a way to train her biggest - and only - true magic power: her power over plants. There simply weren't tat many situations where she could use it to her advantage, but right now Jadeite himself had given her the perfect opportunity and her sheer determination to show him what she was made off seemed to fuel her magic, making it glow brightly within her.

"Ha, I want to see you... What the...?" Jadeite stopped laughing when suddenly the thorny bushes stopped attacking Moon and came after him. "Damn it!" Fire shot out of his palm, incinerating the bushes to ashes instantly.

_Damn it, I should not have taken this so lightly!_ he cursed himself.

Turning around, he barely managed to throw up a shield to protect himself from a rain of metal shrapnel when Jupiter blew apart the artwork with a lightning bolt. He was cursing himself again that he'd taken all this too lightly when he spotted Sailor Moon doing something unusual. The gemstone in her tiara seemed to be glowing, and suddenly a white flash blinded him. In the few seconds it took him to regain sight, the Senshi fled.

"How did you do that?" Jupiter wondered, while the three of them ran towards the center of the park and away from Jadeite, who most likely was angry now.

"I honestly have no idea," Moon had to admit, although despite it not exactly being an attack, it had been really convenient to discover this magic moments ago.

Mars and Venus were faring worse at the same time.

"Where are you naughty girls? You can't hide from me forever!" Zoisite sing-songed mockingly, while occasionally blowing up a bush in order to find out where the two Senshi had hidden themselves away. So far she had no found them after they had escaped the initial beating.

Said two Senshi knew that if they'd try to make a run for it right now, Zoisite would get them for sure. They really needed something to distract her for a short time. Before they could create a plan however, they suddenly saw Zoisite pointing at their hiding space and they ran out, just before an explosion blew it apart.

"Finally. Are you now ready for your spanking?"

Mars didn't let her finish and tried to conjure the biggest fireball possible and threw it at her. It was a good effort and Zoisite seemed to struggle for a moment, but her shield held and she looked only slightly singed.

"My hair!" she hissed when seeing that a small part had burned away. "You'll regret that!"

Mars barely could react before the ground blew up beneath her, throwing her several meters away, leaving Venus to face Zoisite. Right now Venus felt horribly exposed and she doubted that her magic at the moment was strong enough to really hurt Zoisite. She just wished she had some sort of weapon, something she could fight her physically with. Something... something. As if her magic had waited for this, she felt something poking her from her subspace pocket and pulled upon it.

"Ohhhh, I didn't know you were that kind of girl," Zoisite mocked when seeing what Venus held in her hands.

It indeed was an unusual weapon. Venus held a golden chain, whose links were shaped like hearts. It looked really tacky and she felt a little embarrassed that it look so cliché for her. Nonetheless she didn't hesitate to use it and whipped it out in Zoisite's direction.

"Ha! You missed!.. I..." **-Cronch- **"Arrrgh!"

She had not missed. She had aimed for the stone sundial directly behind Zoisite and cleanly pulled it off and directly onto Zoisite. The General cursed and struggled a little, before pushing the large and heavy object off. Looking around she cursed when seeing no sign off her prey. They had used this distraction to flee into the darkness.

**-Bllluuunnng-**

"Damn it!" Ranma cursed, while seeing how little effect the strike had had on the field that shut them in. Some ripples went over the surface, but that was it.

They had really fast determined that trying to use any destructive magic would be more likely to hurt them due to the blast radius. Mercury was still busy with trying to find a weak spot, while Ranma felt a better approach would be to see if the shield would crack. The really frustrating thing was, that the strikes did seem to have an effect, just not enough to do any serious damage to it.

Being locked in as they were, they were helpless to watch the events unfold. While Kunzite seemed to be quite good at fighting and magic - although Ranma commented not as good as him - the blasts that Kunzite threw at him were simply overwhelming. It gave them at taste of what they would have to fight against in the future and it was sobering to see Nephrite now barely standing, his uniform torn and bleeding out of numerous wounds.

"You do have an effect. Your life-force weakens the field, but it's not enough. The dome is meant to keep us in. Even a weak attack from the outside could shatter it," Mercury finally said, looking up from her computer.

Ranma cursed. Right now, knowing that ki-blast technique would have gotten them out. But since she didn't know it yet...

Right then, Nephrite finally fell to the ground and something fell out of his pocket. Kunzite picked it up. "Very interesting," he said, while inspecting the Black Crystal. "I knew you dabble into alchemy and this looks like it could please our queen. Not that it would help you."

Zoisite then suddenly appeared from a cloud of petals. "Kunzite, watch out, I couldn't stop them."

"They managed to slip by?" Before she could answer, Jadeite appeared as well. "Don't tell you let them get away as well."

"What does it matter?" Jadeite asked, when looking at the defeated Nephrite. "We have what we want. No need to waste anymore time."

**-PLIIINNNNGKLLLIIIRRR-**

They had to shield their eyes when suddenly the energy dome shattered. When they were able to see again, they saw that not only had their enemies been freed, but that all the remaining Senshi had arrived. Standing together as a group, they faced the three Generals, who in turn didn't waste a moment to assume attacking positions, read for the standoff.

**"It is enough!"**

The loud, booming voice made everyone stop. Looking up, they saw the hologram of Queen Beryl float above them. "Queen Beryl?" Kunzite asked, also surprised by her sudden appearance.

**"As interesting as such a stand-off could be, we have other things to do. Bring the traitor back to me, now!"** Beryl then looked to the Senshi. **"As for you... You stopped me once already. You won't be so lucky this time."**

There then all of a sudden was a cloud of darkness, obscuring view. When they could see again, not only had Beryl vanished, but also all of the Generals, meaning they had taken Nephrite with them. Everyone just looked at the spot where he had been, just some blood on the ground remaining. It had happened so fast... just like that. And they had been unable to do anything about. Not anything at all.

"We failed... just like that," Sailor Moon said in disbelief.

* * *

_...in the Dark Kingdom..._

"Ahhhrrggh!" Nephrite screamed in pain when he was dropped in front of Queen Beryl's throne, aggravating his injuries.

Queen Beryl looked down at him in dislike, then turned to her three other generals. "Good work."

"He had this in his possession. It seems to be a very powerful artifact," Kunzite reported, giving the Black Crystal to Beryl.

She inspected the crystal. "Very interesting. It seems our traitor has been busy. This will aid us. Now, leave us alone. I shall put my judgement on him. Wait outside until I call for you!"

Jadeite, Zoisite and Kunzite wondered why she would give these orders, but obeyed without question. As soon as the heavy doors had closed behind them, leaving the injured Nephrite alone with Beryl and her court of Youma, the queen got up, walking in front of the beaten man, tsking as if scolding an unruly child - a strange contrast to her earlier mood.

"My, my, my. I would have never thought that you would find the courage to openly go against me," she told him, walking around him like a dangerous predator.

If Nephrite was intimidated, he didn't show it and still held up well for a man in his position. "I have no loyalty to you! Not after what you have done to the four of us to betray everything we loved!"

Beryl looked taken aback for a moment, before gathering herself. "Well, I should have known if anyone would be able to throw off my spell, it would be you with your special connection to the stars. But do not get any wrong ideas. The others don't have this connection and will stay loyal to me until the bitter end."

"Yes, too bad. Also too bad that your spell made it impossible for you to question them about the secret of the kingdom," Nephrite said mysteriously.

That made Beryl raise an eyebrow. "What secret?" she wondered, having no idea what it could be. It her position as a minor noble, she'd gotten most of the information, but this was new. It seemed like something that would be kept very close to the royal family.

Nephrite laughed dryly. "Ha, I won't tell you; not even under the threat of torture. It will be one of these things that in the end will bring you down."

Beryl looked disappointed. "If you wish it to be this way... You know what your future looks like?"

"I have have a good idea."

"Oh yes. The Eternal Sleep. The ones who are put into it fall into the darkness to never return." It seemed that she had a sort of fondness for this spell. "Do you have any last words before the sentence is put through?"

Nephrite stood up under pain, facing her with his face calm. "Yes, there is something... LONG LIVE ENDYMION!"

Beryl snarled, these words enraging her, before a blast from her scepter encased Nephrite in a greenish crystal, freezing him in mid-motion. She looked at his frozen form, while the doors opened and the remaining generals walked back in, looking at the crystal with Nephrite in it. Despite their loyality and their glee at seeing the punishment of Nephrite, they still shuddered a little.

Queen Beryl addressed them. "See? This is the punishment for disloyalty: the Eternal Sleep. Trapped in a never-ending nightmare. Remember this well." She then turned to the Youma in the room. "Get him to the hall where the others are... A gallery of disloyal subjects for everyone to see as a warning."

Watching the Youma drag off the big crystal, Beryl couldn't help but to wonder about what Nephrite had said.

_What could it be that I don't know about? And why wouldn't these three know it while under my control? Well, it won't matter once this world is ours, _she thought.

After all, the true war would start soon.

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"**__**The Music-Connection, Part I**__**"**_

* * *

**Notes:**

**I guess now you understand why putting it into one chapter wouldn't have worked, it simply is too much content. Splitting it in two also gave me the opportunity to give Nephrite some more focus. Be assured, we have not seen the last of him.**

**It was devlishly complicated to write three different groups at the park, so excuse if it seems a bit disjointed at times.**

Finally, here something that will appear in a later chapter, but felt I should share with you now. It basically plays in Princess Serenity's memories and I call it that "Song of Serenity". I admit I lifted it from somewhere else, since I felt it fits very nicely to the situation of the Princess before meeting Endymion.

**Scene:**

Princess Serenity was looking into her vanity mirror, feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders after her mother had announced that she had entered the age for courtship and that there soon would be possible suitors entering her life. She then gently began to sing to herself.

_Grow up, young lady, that's what they all say_

_It's time to settle down, put childish things away_

_Aren't you happy, thrilled, delighted_

_You're going to be a bride_

_Yes! I'm so excited, I want to run and hide_

Serenity looked in nostalgia at the picture of her and her parants when she had been six years old. She still missed her father and knew her mother had never fully gotten over his premature death. That also was, why she was pushing the courtship issue.

_They tell me it's my duty, a princess must be wed_

_You'll learn to love the handsome prince, there's nothing you should dread_

_But I'm not prepared to set my freedom on the shelf_

_How can I trust with someone what I don't understand myself?_

Walking to the open window, she looked outside to see the blue and green orb of Earth on the dark horizon, feeling a longing for it. The planet which the Moon was revolving around held beauties that the dull grey orb she currently was on could never have.

_I want to go to a land beyond dreams_

_Where everything's new, not really what it seems_

_Enchantment adventure are waiting for me_

_I'll find that magic land_

_A land beyond dreams_

Leaning with her elbows on the windowsill, she sighed in longing, wondering if her dream would ever be fulfilled, ignoring Luna, who had come in earlier and watched her in silence, understanding the inner turmoil her charge was going through.


	16. The Music-Connection, Part I

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

**It had taken more far too long to write this, but RL things constantly interfere. Due to the schedule I had to write this chapter, I'm sorry if it sometimes doesn't merge together perfectly. I heard that I didn't spotlight Ranma and Ami enough, but that's a problem only solved once the next chapter is done, as the one following that one will feature both of them prominently.**

**Warning that Ranma and Ami do a bit of "exploration" in this one, although I tried to keep it clean (sadly no adult-chapter for you this time at aff net).**

**Note that specific notes are at the end of the chapter, to avoid spoilers.**

* * *

**Chapter 15: The Music-Connection, Part I**

Jadeite stood before the throne of Queen Beryl, looking very pleased with himself. It had been a mere day ago that Nephrite had fallen and Jadeite had enjoyed every single second since then, as it included an elevation of his own position. Besides that, he also was ready to report to his queen on his big project.

"Well, Jadeite? Are you ready to proceed with your big plan?" Beryl asked him impatiently.

"Yes, Queen Beryl. Right at the moment, our... hot music... is being delivered to the stores in masses. I have no doubt that it will sell like nothing else after all the advertisement we made and the hidden manipulation signals will ensure that everyone can't get enough of hearing it," Jadeite reported, quite pleased with himself.

Beryl allowed herself a rare smile of satisfaction. "You have done well so far, Jadeite. Your plan of keeping these bothersome Senshi in the dark until it already is too late promises rich reward."

"Thank you, my queen," Jadeite replied, almost glowing with pride.

"I trust that everything has been prepared on this side as well?" Beryl asked further.

Jadeite nodded. "Yes. Our energy tanks are all ready to receive the harvest right from the source and store it. Your loyal servant Tethys reports, that they are ready when the hour comes."

"Then proceed as planned, Jadeite, and our great Master will soon reawaken."

o

At the same time, Ranma's great-grandfather Isamu Nakamura was on the phone, speaking with his contact.

"Yes, Hino-san, everything that you have reported to me reinforces my belief that my great-grandson is more than ready to become my successor. From what you have told me I can see he is a young man of good heart who won't hesitate to fight for the good cause and he already has made contact with the forces of darkness."

Isamu then listened to what the elder Hino further had to say.

"I understand you have to keep various things silent, since you have given a vow of secrecy, but what you have already told me is very impressive. I plan to invite him here next week, directly after the start of the summer leave, to finally reveal the legacy of the Shadow Hunter to him."

Isamu listened to what else Hino-san had to say.

"You want to try and arrange that I get more information about his allies? This can't hurt, after all we fight on the same side. You have done a lot to help me. You have done well in helping the side of the light. I thank you, Hino-san, and that we hopefully can soon meet in person."

Hanging up the phone, Isamu slowly went to the open doors of the family room, which led to a wooden balcony. His cane made small clicking noises on the wooden floor until he finally had reached outside, overlooking the fields and woods of the area far outside of Tokyo, with his house in a rural, small village far away from all the stress of the big city. It wasn't a big house, but after the modest gains in his work life, this was the best he could afford, and it suited him well. It looked so peaceful with night having settled, only the distant light pollution from Tokyo interrupting the picture.

Sitting down in a reed chair, his thoughts returned to his great-grandson.

Ranma had surely led an interesting life and he understood why Nodoka had felt it better to not mention this curse to him. Yet, since he had witnessed magic numerous times, it didn't shock him. He just felt sorry for Ranma that he had to live with something this embarrassing, although after some of the more horrible curses he had witnessed in his active time as Shadow Hunter, the boy had gotten a mostly harmless curse. Just changing genders was very innocent compared to things like getting turned inside-out while still living or having all your bones turned to liquid and dying a horrible death. He had witnessed these things and some still gave him the occasional nightmare.

However, what Hino-san had told him - and what Nodoka for good reason, at least she thought so, had not told him - was giving him hope.

The boy - no, more like a young man - was already following the call, without even knowing. Although now knowing the reason why he had re-connected to his legacy now of all times dampened his mood a little. The mere idea that he'd carried around such a dangerous demon for almost ten years was frightening, especially since he hadn't been aware of it. If not for his advanced age, he'd have been tempted to go and strangle Genma Saotome with his own hands. The circumstances of the demon's destruction were a bit unusual, but he was glad it was gone and the infernal book destroyed as well. Only with the demon leaving Ranma's body was the taint gone and the boy able to re-connect to his destiny.

_To think that the connection got cut because a demon entered his body,_ he thought in disbelief, _good thing that his good heart prevented this monster from taking over._

That Ranma was actively following the call and had already risen up against the dark forces with these rather unusual allies had then reinforced his impression that this young man would take on the never-ending battle against the dark forces without hesitation, if asked. Granted, the girls at whose side he was fighting looked more like something out of erotic writings by the way they dressed, but he had little right to judge them, considering what some of the women of his profession in some countries wear.

He however knew without doubt that the Senshi were fighting for the same cause, their actions spoke for themselves, even though from what he got, these girl were not very good at it yet.

Leaning back, Isamu Nakamura took a deep breath.

Yes, at the beginning of the summer holidays next week, he would extend an invitation to Ranma. He deserved to know the truth and decide himself, if he accepted the legacy.

* * *

_... next day, morning..._

Walking to school at the Wednesday morning was quite a somber affair.

Everyone still had not gotten over how easily they had lost at Monday evening. It was that regardless how much they had tried, even their best hadn't been good enough to stop the Dark Kingdom from taking Nephrite with them. That they hadn't made a difference, that it would have been the same as if they hadn't come at all, was sobering and showed that their successes up to now were not enough to keep up once things would get really serious.

Pluto had been surprisingly understanding. She had told them that she'd feared something like that would happen sooner or later, adding that this was a hard lesson she wished on no one, but which would teach them to take the whole thing very serious. The message had sunk in and the girls were no longer complaining, now that they'd seen where being unskilled and underpowered had led to. Each of them had vowed to try and always give their best, even Usagi.

Meeting Pluto had also brought up the strange chain that Venus had conjured and which she now always had access to, even when not transformed.

Of course the golden chain looked goofy, with the links being shaped like hearts, but Pluto had said that it actually is a very powerful magical weapon. It was only breakable by very strong magic and could be easily repaired. Also, it could be charged with Venus' magic. Minako however had balked when Pluto said it was called the 'Love-Me Chain', finding the name embarrassing and insisted that she would just call it a chain. Pluto had added that every Senshi had a personal weapon, pointing out her staff and Ceres' sickle, but that only with time they would find out how to access them.

Khu-Lon had been positively surprised that the girls were now putting every ounce of effort into their training, but the confrontation with Ranma had been even more interesting.

Ranma had almost demanded that his training had to begin very soon, saying that he hated being unable to help and that he needed these techniques, as he had experienced first hand. The elder surprisingly had not been angry and instead complimented him on this insight, saying he had just again proven why he could be trusted with these secrets. She added that they would start with the serious training shortly after the beginning of the summer holidays, with Xian-Pu then free of school obligations and able to take care of the girls' training full-time.

Ami shook her head, returning to the present.

They had just met up with Akane, Naru and Usagi on the way to school. Neither of them had said much, but it was clear that Usagi still felt bad over the events two days ago. She was not used to failing like that and it showed. Akane on the other hand seemed to take things much better. Perhaps after everything that had happened in her life, it took more to get her off-balance.

Looking to Ranma, Ami had to admit that he took it rather well, although she had noticed an increase in the severity of the training his father gave him. It had forced her to remind him that he shouldn't overdo it, or she would to have to tell his mother that he again was in danger of neglecting his grades. The threat alone had been enough to make him promise to keep it in check.

Finally arriving at school, they noticed right away that some kind of new fad was going around the student population.

The number of students, boys and girls alike, who either were wearing headphones for portable CD players or listening from some mobile player someone had carried in their book bag was surprisingly high. Walking further into the school yard towards the doors, they could clearly hear it was some kind of music they were all gaga over.

"Seems that we missed another big thing coming out," Usagi noticed. Ever since becoming Sailor Moon she didn't have as much time for pop culture as she used to have.

There was a group of girls close to the door, listening to the music coming from a portable CD player. Naru approached them. "Excuse me, what is this?"

"What, you don't know? It was all over radio and TV!" one of the girls asked, looking at Naru as if she had grown a second head.

"We were really busy," Usagi added.

The girl looked at Usagi in disbelief, knowing her reputation and she seemed to doubt that Usagi was busy. Shaking her head she showed them the cover. "It's the first single from the new star, J. Stone, although everyone knows that's just his artist name."

They had to admit, the cover was... colorful. It looked like a store full of paint had exploded. In the middle stood a man who seemed to be in his early thirties, holding a mike and singing with all the strength he could. '_May our Strength combine_' was the title pasted in huge, yellow letters above him. All five of them tried hard not to gag at the sight of the cover. Even Usagi pulled a fine line between sexy and not-sexy, and this clearly was on the wrong side of the line for her.

"He surely looks...enthusiastic," Usagi said carefully, not wanting to show what she really thought.

"Enthusiastic? Just listen to it!" Then without warning, the girl ramped up the volume.

Their ears all of a sudden were assaulted with something that could only be called music in the broadest sense. While the other students seemed to like it, they didn't like it at all. It sounded to them like a cacophony of clashing sounds that made their ears hurt. All five of them didn't stay to hear more, running into the school building to escape from it.

"What was this junk? I got a headache from it as soon as I heard it!" Ranma gasped, once they were inside the building and outside of hearing range.

"I guess that's what is called music these days," Akane answered not very helpfully, while using a finger in trying to clear her right ear.

Ami shook her head, some echos of the noise still in her ears. "I felt like my ears were bleeding. What is wrong with classical music? I for my part enjoy it very much."

"Not everyone has got taste..." Naru said, then saw Makoto coming from the other end of the corridor. "Where did you come from?"

Makoto wasn't even out of breath, despite obviously having run quite a distance. "From the back entrance. There was some crazy noise at the front entrance and I didn't want any trouble. Not after that little mess with Minako on the way here."

"What did happen now?" Ami asked, dreading what now could have happened.

Mokoto shook her head. "Nothing too bad, Minko just stumbled over Artemis and fell flat onto her face. I felt it better to leave when Artemis was clawing up her skirt to show his displeasure."

Usagi rolled her eyes when hearing this. The girl knew with dead certainty that Artemis would go to Luna after this incident to 'keep her company', meaning she wouldn't see much of her feline advisor for the rest of the day. In her imagination she had a good idea what these two were doing when together, but it was none of her business. She just hoped that Luna wouldn't get knocked up, since her parents wouldn't like a litter of kittens at all.

Right then, Ami said her good-byes and went to her own classroom. Sometimes they forgot that Ami was in a different classroom from them, considering how much time they spent together. Ranma especially had to remind himself of this fact regularly, although he had no problem with it, since he knew he would see her during lunch break and after school. Knowing they probably won't see Minako until lunch break they left for their first class of the day as well, even if only to escape that infernal music outside.

Soon everything returned to be a normal day of school a few days before summer break.

All of them busied themselves in the classroom before first period would start and soon forgot the incident at the front door. Naru was just sitting at her desk, being bored and looking around the half-filled classroom for anything to distract her. Her wandering eyes finally spotted something unusual and for a few moments she thought that there was a new student in class, before a second look made her realise who it actually was.

Getting up, she approached him. "You look quite... different, Umino."

Said boy looked up from his laptop. The heavy, thick glasses were gone; replaced by thin glasses in an aluminium frame. "Oh, hello Naru. You.. you noticed?"

Naru was surprised how different Umino looked with his new glasses. His old glasses had helped to scare away most people and made him look like a class-A idiot. Now however he looked like your average teenage boy - a bit on the weak side - but otherwise nothing remained from his nerdy looks. How much of a difference new glasses could make.

"It's hard to not notice it," she commented, while looking at him from several angles. "You took my advice?"

Umino pushed the glasses up his nose, before answering "Yes... it was so strange. He asked me where I got my old glasses from and then yelled at my parents over the phone for almost five minutes, before I got these. They are really light and I can see much better now."

Naru was reminded that Umino's parents had to be huge idiots to do something like this. "Uhm, you also do look quite good with them."

"Oh, really?"

Thankfully, Naru was spared from an awkward situation when the teacher entered right then and everyone scrambled to their seats.

She couldn't help but to wonder what had her made say this. Sure, Umino did look better without these ridiculous glasses, but he still was just an average guy. Then again, she was not like Usagi, who would only have eyes for Mr. Universe. But still, Umino? The geek they knew for years now? Naru wondered why she saw him different now. Had she really just seen the ridiculous glasses all the time?

_If I go on like this, I get a headache, _she finally told herself, before returning her attention to the lesson.

* * *

_...Saotome house, after school..._

School was fairly uneventful and it didn't seem take long before it was over and everyone went home. Since today was not a training day, it meant that Ami was walking with Ranma to his house, where they would get the homework out of the way.

Homework was something that Ranma still didn't like, but having Ami helping him was compensation enough. Her presence also was a great motivator to try and give his very best - which sadly still wasn't much on occasion, much to his embarrassment. However, she didn't seem to mind and even seemed to find enjoyment in helping him to overcome these problems. He actually missed her when she was busy with training.

This day was nothing out of the ordinary; and it being familiar was an odd comfort for them.

However, they went on full alert when they saw Ranma's father outside in the garden, avoiding the open sliding doors of the family room. That could only mean that his wife was being the host for other women - nothing else would make Genma Saotome act like this. Not that they couldn't understand this behavior, they themselves would do the same thing. For Ranma it was one of the few things he didn't like about his mother and Ami was dead-sure that her mother was in the house as well, since she had a free day.

"Pop, how bad is it? Should we go somewhere else?" Ranma directly asked him, not beating around the bush.

"Not too bad. No photos, they are just exchanging gossip and all that," he said, while constantly eying the door. "I think it's safe to stay in the garden. Just stay quiet." That said, he went to a place near the fence, which was in the shadow, and tried to shut out the world (he was taking a nap).

Ranma shook his head. Even though his father was changing, there were some thing that would never change. At least he was no longer wearing that stupid gi all the time. After getting one stare too many, Genma had moved to wearing something more normal - not that it made a difference with his transformation, since his clothes vanished when he turned panda and - thankfully - reappeared when he turned back to human. Ranma didn't even want to imagine how that worked and just thanked the gods for sparing him the sight (which he had seen too often during the training trip).

"I guess we'll do all the work outside at the garden table. I for my part won't go in there. I'm brave, not stupid," Ranma finally decided.

Ami understood him all too well. She had been present at something like that once, when her mother had met with her friends in their apartment, and the experience had made her avoid such things in the future. It was one thing to do the same thing with her friends, but something different to be on the sidelines and be the object of the discussion. No thanks, she didn't want a repeat performance.

Taking pains to stay quiet, they started their work, whispering when needed.

Through the open doors, they could hear the occasional bits from the conversation inside, which as Genma had said, mostly was gossip, social stuff and other things of that kind. It only strengthened their resolve to not get noticed in the first place or they would be in for a very boring afternoon. From what they were hearing, Nodoka again had Mrs. Mizuno and Mrs. Tsukino as guests.

"What do you think they are talking about?" Ranma wondered, while watching Ami showing him the Kanji he'd written wrong.

"You don't want to know. I witnessed one of these and I don't to do so again," Ami said with a slight annoyance in her voice and Ranma left it at that.

Inside was actually not quite as bad as the two teenagers imagined.

"I have to say, I see a big improvement in Usagi. I would not have believed that she would get up on time or do her school work, even though her grades are still not satisfying. It must be your daughter, Saeiko. She's rubbing off on her and I think that's a good thing," Ikuko said to her friend.

"Considering how often over the previous years you despaired over her, this says something," Saeko told her, while watching Nodoka refilling their tea cups. "For my part I wouldn't have thought mere months ago that Ami would end up with such a full social life. So many friends, an actual boyfriend and even finding an interest in sports. Who would have thought?"

_If they only knew the real reason..._ Nodoka thought, while pouring the tea.

There was one drawback to being in the know... it was how guilty you felt when keeping things secret from your friends, especially when said friends are the parents of the secrets. She felt quite guilty for keeping this quiet and couldn't even imagine how hard this had to be on the girls. Lying to those you love surely was no fun.

"Shouldn't we have heard them by now? After all, school's out for some time," Saeko asked, when looking at the clock.

"I guess the dears don't want to disturb us and enjoy the good weather outside," Nodoka lied through her teeth. She knew Ranma would stay far away, since he disliked being present at such things, and this by proxy meant Ami would stay away, too.

"How thoughtful of them, I wish my own son would be like this. You remember the last time we were at our house?" Ikuko remembered, shuddering at the humiliating memory of how Shingo had behaved.

Nodoka was glad that the topic went to something else. "I still can't believe how rude your son had been. I thought he would know better by now."

"I thought so as well. Usagi, despite all her faults, is much better behaved." Ikuko then looked to Saeko Mizuno. "Saeko, dear, is something wrong that you again look at the clock?"

Saeko shook her head. "Oh... it's just that Kaizo wrote that he tries to get home as soon as he can. I even left a message home in case he arrives."

"I wonder what he'll say once he meets my son?" Nodoka wondered.

The answer was lost when suddenly loud voices drew their attention to the garden.

A few minutes earlier, Ami and Ranma had been busy with homework. Or better, Ami was busy with helping Ranma, since she knew she could finish her own work in mere minutes. It was a bit inconvenient that since they were in different homerooms, they never had the same homework. However, Ami didn't mind. She had to do the same thing with the girls, since they didn't share a class with her. It helped to keep her mind sharp and as well gave her an excuse to stay longer at Ranma's home.

Ranma had long lost any feeling of embarrassment at letting Ami help him. He had accepted that school stuff was like a school of martial arts where he was a beginner and Ami a black belt. So there was nothing shameful in accepting her help, especially since she seemed to enjoy it. It was a contrast. From what Ami had told him and what he had witnessed at the beginning, she had been repulsed by learning and school stuff thanks to how it had led her to a lonely life. But now... now she seemed to have regained her love for it.

"...and that's how you put the calculation of the triangle to good use," Ami right then finished her explanation.

"Hadn't thought that calculating a triangle could be this useful during a fight," Ranma honestly said at her clear and useful explanation. "These things come so easy to you... I sometimes feel kind of dumb."

"Don't!... I mean, don't do that. Remember that while I'm very intellectual, I'm almost entirely hopeless in a fight. We are opposite extremes," Ami quickly said. "Both of us have a LOT to learn."

"I would not say hopeless. For someone who had not until recently fought, it wasn't bad," Ranma told her and then enjoyed her cute blushing that followed.

"It certainly helps that I'm hard to hurt," she reluctantly admitted.

"Do you know you look cute when you are doing that?" Ranma teased a bit more, causing Ami's face to become a little redder.

"P-please, I can't help it!" she stammered.

Deciding that he'd teased her enough, Ranma held Ami close, allowing her to calm down. "That's one of these things I like about you... You are so honest."

Ami was reminded of why she liked Ranma so much, beside the fact that he looked good: he was a good friend. Not friend as in boyfriend but friend as in friend. While the upgrade to boyfriend had its advantages, she liked him for the fact that he had never made fun of her and did see Ami the girl and not just Ami Mizuno, top student. However, him holding her also showed an advantage of Ranma the boyfriend - she now felt very warm around her heart.

Ranma on the other hand had grown more secure around her. While he had been somewhat clusy at the start with how to express himself to her, he seemed to have learned fast. Enjoying being at her side had certainly helped.

"I just hope my old man doesn't wake up. I really don't want him see us right now," Ranma said, looking to where his father was sleeping near the fence.

"I wouldn't do this in the presence of my parents, either. Good thing we are alone..."

"The letters were not wrong. He is very close to you, Ami-chan."

"AKH!" they both gasped and quickly jumped apart, before looking to where the voice came from.

The was a man standing in the garden who... actually didn't look all that extraordinary. He looked more casual than most men with his blue jeans and leather jacket, but otherwise there wasn't anything to set him apart from the masses of people Ranma met every day, making him wonder who this could be. Ami on the other hand did recognise the man, causing her blush to return full force at being caught by him of all people in such a position.

"FATHER! You are embarrassing me!" she wailed in mortification.

_That's her father? _Ranma slightly recoiled, worrying that he didn't make a good first impression on the father of his girlfriend.

It seemed that Ami's father was not concerned by that outburst and embraced her. "I honestly don't care. For me you will always be my little Ami." That of course only rose Ami's embarrassment even further and her face became as red as a tomato.

Ranma watched the scene, before noticing that Genma had woken up and stood beside him. "Pop, thanks for not being like that," he told him, while feeling sorry for Ami.

"I'm thankful for that as well..." Genma dryly commented, thanking all heavens he wasn't this over-emotional. He would never show such an open display of affection.

"KAIZO!"

Ami's father finally let go of his daughter and instead was promptly embraced by his wife. Everyone thanked all goodness that at least they had the decency too keep making out at a minimum due to the audience. The two teenagers tuned it out, until Ami's father turned to Ranma.

"So this is the boy you told me about over the phone and in your letters. Guess I'll have to do my fatherly duty..."

"Kaizo, be nice. I told you he is very honorable and would never hurt Ami," Saeko reminded her husband.

Ranma for his part was at a loss what to do. This was Ami's father, who very well could tell him to stay away from her. This was one situation for which he was not prepared for or had any idea how to deal with. Freezing up, he couldn't do anything but to look uncomfortably to the man. Kaizo Mizuno looked as if one good hit could fell him, but this wasn't a situation that could be solved in a fight.

"Oh, just look at this. He does the best to look afraid of me!" Ami's father then called, causing Genma to smack Ranma on the back of his head.

"Boy, don't embarrass the family like this," Genma warned his son, only to get a hard look from Nodoka in return.

"If I remember right, you outright groveled and went to your knees when you met my parents. Not that it worked, since they threw you out of the house," she reminded her husband, causing him to back off.

Kaizo looked at Ranma some moments longer, before his eyes softened. "Don't look at me like this. I won't threaten you with violence, since I doubt I could even hit you. And just watching you two I could easily see how good you are for her. Last time I was home, Ami's only friends were books."

"Father!" Ami again protested.

"Dear, you have to admit that it is true. Look how much more happy you are now. You can't deny it," her mother reminded her.

"But... I... Please not in front of everyone else!" Ami stammered, while finally hiding behind Ranma just to be out of sight.

Her father chuckled. "Ok, I think I fulfilled my fatherly duty of embarrassing you. Honestly, I have nothing against it, he seems to be a fine young man who would never hurt you. As long as I don't become a grandfather too soon I won't make problems."

Both teenagers now were red in the face. "Ami, does your father love to do that?" Ranma whispered to her.

Ami sighed. "Yes... He loves to embarrass the hell out of me on his first day back. It's all meant in fun and he knows when to stop. I love him dearly, still, I start to get too old for this."

"Strange enough, I wish my old man had been like this," Ranma said in surprise, earing himself a headshake from Ami.

"Trust me, you don't," Ami said, then looked to her mother. "You knew he was coming," she accused her.

Seako looked a little guilty. "I wanted it to be a surprise for you. Sorry that you father is his usual, energetic self."

Watching these exchanges, Ranma wondered if that was how normal families worked and interacted. He never had one, after all. First the training trip, then his mother's guilt making her extra attentive to him, while his father was just becoming more approachable. In a way he envied Ami a little for having grown up with two loving parents,

* * *

_...at night..._

_That's hopeless!_ Ranma silently groaned.

It was ridiculous. He'd woken up in the middle of the night and the cause of it had been an especially intense dream... one that of course featured Ami. It had started somewhat cheesy with their wedding. However, the wedding night that followed was very graphical and made Ranma wonder how he even conjured these images. What had started with plain vanilla lovemaking had turned to experimenting with other body orifices and him turning into a girl to 'put more variety into it'.

He'd woken up when Ami in the dream had used a strap-on to enter her.

Of course these intense dreams had had an effect on him and he was now sporting a very hard and almost painful erection. Regardless how hard he tried, it didn't go away and he was unable to return to sleep, even fearing how painful it could be to roll onto his front in this condition. Turning girl was also out, since Ranma knew it wouldn't reduce his arousal - not after seeing himself as a girl and Ami doing a sixty-nine in the dream.

_Where did I get these ideas from?_ Ranma wondered. _Maybe her old man mentioning something about her virtue did it._

However, for now the problem at hand was more important. Ranma had a pretty good idea that he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep or get rid of it until his body would get what it wanted. Up until now, he'd managed to avoid doing this. He'd never admit that he was a bit embarrassed at the idea of masturbating to release pent-up arousal. And up to now he never needed to, since by the time he woke up, he'd already climaxed from the dreams, regardless if boy or girl, and both genders creating a mess.

Up until now, that is.

He knew he now had no choice but to finally do it and was mighty glad he was male, since this was more familiar to him. He probably would have been too embarrassed about masturbating as a girl. He knew he would most likely get too curious and try it in due time, but not right now. Right now years of repressed sexuality needed to be addressed.

Pulling down his boxers, Ranma looked at his hard manhood.

_Let's see the best way to do that... _It wasn't that he hadn't touched it while it was hard in the past, just that he had never done anything further than that. The books that Ami had made him read about sexuality had had schematics of how men and women masturbate in them - it had been hard for him to read that book to the end.

Shaking his head, Ranma felt he should better get over with it.

Spitting into his hand, he carefully moistened his appendage - no way he'd try that dry - before taking hold of it. That action alone had felt better than anticipated - his member right now seemed to be very sensitive. He caught himself wondering how it would feel with it actually being inside Ami.

_Concentration! _he warned himself, being a bit worried how easily his thoughts went to that mental picture.

However, it wasn't that easy. With each stroke, Ranma felt intense need for more flood him, and his thoughts wandered very quickly. He imagined Ami in her birthday suit; both of them sharing a furo; exploring every inch of her... and more. Without noticing, these thoughts made him masturbate heavily until suddenly...

"Oh, AH!" It all exploded out of him and he felt the pressure leave him, being replaced by a deep satisfaction, accompanied by the idea doing this while inside Ami.

Trying to regain his breath, Ranma looked at the mess he'd created. "Man, looks like I need a new muscle shirt... Still, it was worth it."

He actually now wondered why he hadn't one this earlier, considering how good it felt.

o

After turning around for the upteenth time in her bed, Ami had to admit defeat.

_I won't get any sleep this way,_ she silently groaned.

She had been woken up in the middle of the night by a very intense dream. While such dreams by now were normal to her, this one had been the most intense one up to now. Indeed, it was so intense that she was incredibly riled up and - as loathe as she was to say it - also incredibly horny. Trying to ignore it had not helped and only made the sensation between her legs worse, while threatening to soak her panties.

The dream had indeed been powerful. It had started quite romantically with their wedding, before it turned very graphical in the following wedding night. After lots of regular lovemaking at first, things became very hot. Ami had never before imagined Ranma in her dreams putting it into her rear hole. And him turning girl, them doing very... interesting things was very arousing. She'd woken up when she'd used at strap-on in her dream to enter girl-Ranma.

_I must be a closet pervert if I dream things like that, _she thought, staring into her shadowed room.

Up until now Ami had resisted the temptation to ease the sexual tension she felt with masturbation. She was no stranger to it, having experimented with it in her early teenage years, but it had been years since then, since she felt that she was a good girl and good girls do not masturbate. Too bad her body had a different opinion and forced her to re-consider.

It wasn't that she was a prude, her style of life simply had caused her to have such a low-key sexual drive that it seemed non-existent. Of course that had also meant her body was now catching up on years of sexual neglect; forcing her to literally take matters into her own hands if she wanted to ease the constantly growing itch between her legs.

_I still feel a bit dirty doing this..._ she silently sighed, while carefully peeling off her panties.

Gently feeling around she discovered just how wet she had become. Her sex also had become quite swollen and warm, showing her need. Grabbing some tissues from her nightstand, she put these under herself to prevent soaking the bed in what would follow. She carefully traced her finger down the cleft, shuddering when this alone felt much better than expected. She wondered if that was her body telling her that it was about time she did this.

Putting her fingers to work she quickly discovered that it was true. Even inserting just one finger made her arch her back and it only took her a minute to have a first orgasm. However, her body screamed for more and she slowly started to really enjoy her fingers exploring the isodes of her private area. Of course she only partly noticed, since her mind was busy conjuring Ranma in a number of interesting ways. She saw him nude, proudly presenting his rock-hard manhood to her; them both naked and kissing while he poked her with it; allowing her to touch it; and of course...

"Oh! Ah1 Ohh!" she grunted and arched her back sharply at her third climax, which finally spent all of her arousal.

Taking some deep breaths while calming down, Ami was surprised how... animalistic she'd gotten while getting this out of her system. Right now she couldn't care less about being a good girl, not after feeling how good this had been.

_I know it's not proper, but I have to wonder what it would be with Ranma,_ she wondered, while wiping her sex clean with a tissue.

* * *

_...two days later, Ucchan's Okonomiyaki..._

Wiping the counter, Ukyo looked at her well-filled restaurant. She knew this meant her finances were secure. It seemed that the good reputation of her okonomiyaki had spread and she by now had a group of regular customers. This at least was something that had went right since her move to Tokyo, as everything else had been a huge disappointment.

Her father would be of no help, telling her outright that her plan had been stupid and that she now had to live with her decision and having put all her savings into this restaurant. Granted, it wasn't as if she would be in any financial trouble, but it also meant she was forced to stay, which in turn meant being confronted with her short-sightedness every day in form of seeing Ranma being happy together with his friends.

Worse, she had no one to blame but herself.

_I should stop doing that. I only get depressed from it, _she berated herself.

After all, she recently had tried to move on, mainly by trying to completely ignore Ranma and concentrate on school and her work. It was not exactly working, but it at least distracted her. She was mighty glad no one from her old neighborhood could see her now, as they would laugh at her for her lack of foresight.

"Hey, why is a mailbox blocking the entrance?"

Looking up when hearing the complaint, Ukyo saw that indeed, there was a mailbox standing in the sliding doors, which were open because of the warm weather. She had no idea where that thing came from, especially since it hadn't been there a minute earlier, but she had no use for something disrupting her business, so it had to go. Taking her big battle spatula off her back she approached the offending mailbox, intent on pushing it out of the way.

She had little trouble to flip the mailbox out of the entrance, but she wasn't prepared for what happened when it landed.

"Ooof." Ukyo blinked when hearing the mailbox groan. "Ukyo, darling, that was mean to treat me like this!"

"Oh no..." Ukyo groaned, knowing this voice only too well. "I told you to get lost."

"I could never let you out of my sight." With these words, someone crawled out of the dented mailbox. It looked like a girl with long, brown hair and wearing an offensively pink seifuku school uniform. However, Ukyo wasn't fooled in the slightest by the outfit, even without her own experience with cross-dressing. After all, she knew this person.

"Tsubasa, why won't you get it into your head that I can't stand you?" she heatedly asked.

She had wished to never see this person again. Tsubasa Kurenai was a grade-A weirdo with a serious screw loose. The fact she thought of him as crazy was not rooted in the fact that Tsubasa was a boy who liked to wear girl clothes - preferably school uniforms - and had yet attended an all-boys school. Since she had pretended to be a boy and visited said school as well, she had no right to throw the first stone on that issue. No, she thought of him as crazy because he was an annoying and downright infuriating stalker.

Directly after their very first meeting he had constantly claimed their destiny was to be together, despite everyone thinking she was a boy at the time, thus cementing Tsubasa's image as a crazy homosexual. That of course had been the last thing Ukyo had needed. That time at an all-boys school had given her insights no girl her age should have. Some of the memories still managed to get her horrifically embarrassed. Getting a reminder of why that time had been hard on her was the last thing she needed.

"You don't mean that. You just need to discover that you really want it," Tsubasa told her, completely oblivious to her anger.

"Maybe you are blind. You obviously thought I'm a boy when meeting me. But as you can see..." she pointed at her breasts which were quite noticeable in her tight shirt "...this is not the case, so finally give it up."

"Of course I knew that right from the start. What do you take me for? Why do you think you caught my eye in the first place? A girl daring the way of the opposite... oohhh..." Tsubasa told her, dreamily.

_He knew right from the start?_ In a way it made sense, considering the way he dressed he was bound to see through it right away. However, it didn't make her feel better. "Regardless, I want you to leave. NOW!"

Tsubasa suddenly looked jealous. "Why? WHY? Don't tell me there's another man in your life now!"

Ukyo felt like talking against a wall and her customers started to get too curious. Tsubasa causing a scene was bad for business. She needed to get rid of this pest fast. Sure, she could simply whack him with her spatula, but that wouldn't look too great in front of so many customers and it wouldn't solve her problem of him simply coming back the next day.

Coincidence thankfully helped her right then. "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"

Looking to her left, Ukyo saw a teenage boy of her own age approaching, whose most prominent characteristics were the fact that he was carrying a huge backpack and an umbrella around. She had no idea who he was - which was no wonder since she hadn't yet lived in Minato when Ryoga had had his disastrous confrontation at the local school and the following unintended nudist outing. She was oblivious to the whispers of the people who either did recognise him or made the connection from what they had heard.

Tsubasa saw him as well and in his strange logic came to the only possible conclusion. "YOU! You ugly won't have a chance!"

Ryoga, who had just arrived and asked for directions, wondered who this girl was, what the hell she was talking about and what her problem was. "Look, I have no idea who you are nor what your beef with me is..."

He didn't get further when Tsubasa was in his face. "I won't let you. Not someone as dumb and ugly as you."

Now Ryoga started to get annoyed. "What are you talking about and what gives you the right to call me dumb?"

However, Tsubasa was completely ignoring his words. "Someone like you is not suited for a girl."

"Now listen... You are damn lucky you are a girl, or I would..."

"Girl?" Finally these words seemed to have come through. "Oh no, I just like to dress up..." And as if having something to prove, he opened the front of the uniform to reveal a male chest.

Ryoga recoiled in disgust. In Ryoga-logic, all the previous words now made sense - even though standard logic would come to a very different conclusion. In Ryoga-logic, Tsubasa's words and actions meant that the cross-dresser was saying that he, Rayoga, was **gay**. There were few things that could rile up the lost boy even worse than Ranma Saotome, but that was one of these things.

**"YOU BASTARD!"**

What followed was too painful to be described in words. Needless to say, Ukyo almost felt sorry for Tsubasa... but just almost. She had no idea who that boy was, but the brutal beating he was dishing out would certainly scare Tsubasa away from ever coming near her again. She was sure the whole thing was just a huge misunderstanding, but she wouldn't complain.

"Mercy! Mercy!" Tsubasa cried, while finally managing to run away, his seifuku reduced to mere rags hanging down from his body, which in turn had been transformed into a mass of bruises.

Ryoga however didn't see any reason for mercy and chased him down the street until both of them vanished from view.

Shaking her head, Ukyo walked back inside. She didn't have any idea who that boy had been, but he'd done her a favor and gotten rid of that annoying pest before he could do any damage. Just listening to her customers however gave her a better idea - at least she thought so. According to them, the boy was some kind of violent pervert who'd gotten a really bad reputation in this neighborhood. She didn't know about the perverted part, but the violent thing seemed to be true.

_Well, no matter. At least both of them are now gone,_ she shrugged it off, while returning her attention to the next okonomiyaki.

* * *

_...at the same time..._

_OK, you can do that. Take a deep breath and just act as you always do,_ Makoto reminded herself, before deflating. _No, that would be us not speaking to each other. Need to be a bit more aggressive but not too much... Gods, I hadn't thought this would be so difficult._

Standing in front of the Neko-Hanten at the late afternoon, Makoto was unsure how to approach the issue at hand.

During the previous days, she had asked Xian-Pu numerous things about Mu-Tsu and learned as much as the girl was comfortable to tell her about the boy. It sounded as if she was chasing a hopeless case. Mu-Tsu seemed to have set his sights on Xian-Pu since age six and had become increasingly irrational about it. His home life was a disaster with his parents hating each other for almost ten years now and him resenting the women who were trying to keep the old structures alive, which hadn't made him popular with the warriors of the tribe.

It seemed he associated female warriors with being power-hungry, arrogant and badly behaved. That explained why he hadn't spoken to them if he associated them with these traits, since he obviously saw them as female warriors. That was something she hoped to set him right on. In a way it was sad how his view on women got soured by these experiences.

"Why don't you come in?"

Pulled out of her thoughts, Makoto saw Khu-Lon standing in front of her. "Uh..eh..." she tried to find an excuse.

The elder shook her head. "Watching you stand there for ten minutes, I think you should just approach him. And don't look at me this way, I of course know. You and Xian-Pu were hardly secretive and I hope you get him to finally stop this stupidity as it becomes rather sad to witness."

"If you think so..." She became aware how the predestians were starting to look strangely at her and decided to better get in.

**"STAY STILL SO THAT I CAN RIP YOU APART!"**

Quickly jumping to the side, both of them were greeted with the bizzare sight of a teenage boy in what looked like a ruined seifuku uniform running by, screaming in fear and pleading for mercy while he was chased by another teenage boy carrying a big backpack and trying to hit him with an umbrella of all things. He was screaming in anger. The strange pair quickly vanished around a corner and out of sight - although they still heard them.

"What in all names was that about?" Makoto wondered.

"Trust me, sometimes ignorance is bliss," Khu-Lon reminded her, while guiding her inside.

There was not much going on inside. Xian-Pu was out on deliveries and there were only few patrons at the moment. The elder went back to the kitchen and Makoto was left with looking for Mu-Tsu. It didn't take too long to find him returning to the counter from delivering an order to a table. He ignored her while starting to write down things into the inventory book.

Gathering her courage, she approached him. "Excuse me."

He continued to ignore her.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!"

Still nothing, he didn't even acknowledge her presence.

Makoto was about to shout, when Mu-tsu got a cane onto the head, which finally made him look up and protest in pain, only to be confronted with the elder. "This has gone on long enough! It is embarrassing to see you act like this!" she harshly told him.

"And what should I say? There is nothing of any importance I have to share with them," Mu-Tsu defiantly said, earning him another hit onto the head.

"How about decent human behavior? You did not even bother to get these girls known and just used your stereotypes onto them," the elder harshly reminded him.

Mu-Tsu seemed defiant for a few more moments, before deflating. It was made worse when Xian-Pu returned from her deliveries right at that moment. She just took one look at the whole situation, before telling him right away that she was taking over the counter and he should better fix whatever mess he had caused. Minutes later both of them sat at a table in uncomfortable silence.

It was Makoto who finally broke the silence. "All right, why are you treating us so coldly? We've done nothing to you. Don't tell me you think we are like...them." She said the last thing with some distaste, having grown to dislike certain parts of the warriors of Joketsuzoku after hearing how even the consequences of their barbarism hadn't gotten the message through to a good number of them.

"I..." It seemed that he only now got the idea that he'd acted like a complete ass. "Did I really...?"

"You either outright ignore us or give us looks as if we are the dirt on the road. Not to speak of your vow of silence. You tell me how hostile this is," Mokoto challenged him, crossing her arms before waiting for an answer.

Mu-Tsu seemed to deflate even further when realising that he'd acted like a complete ass. "Now I've really done it..."

"Look, I understand that you come from really difficult circumstances and that many in your home village treated you like shit, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. And when Shampoo told me how you became so unhealthily fixated onto her..."

"Xian-Pu," he corrected automatically, "...she was the first girl who actually treated me like a human being and not like a better slave or just avoided me. So you understand why I worshiped the ground she walks on?"

"You speak in past tense, yet you are here," Makoto observed.

Mu-Tsu sighed. "Please don't tell her, but the older I got the more clear it became that she doesn't like me that way. I also know now that I have no chance anyway, since her social status means she's completely out of my reach."

"So why still doing it anyway?" Makoto asked, wondering what the answer would be.

"Pride. I would have lost significant face in the eyes of the other men, had I given up," he explained, cleaning his glasses while he did so. "Do you know how hard it was to push her away like this in order to save face? Maybe... maybe far away from home is not too bad."

"Does that mean you stop acting as if you've taken a vow of silence?" she asked further.

"Now that I see how I just made myself look like an idiot... And now that I think about it, you all are so different from the girls in the village."

Makoto had to quickly douse the hope that flared up inside her. Just because Mu-Tsu had finally stopped acting like an ass didn't mean he'd instantly fall for her. That only happened in cheap romance novels. And judging how bad his love life had been, he more needed a friend instead of a girlfriend. Anything more would only come with time, but she would be patient.

From the counter, Xian-Pu and Khu-Lon watched the two talking.

"You see? He was not as bad as you thought and I think he now finally is about to find something to make him forget that old crush on you," Khu-Lon told Xian-Pu.

"Strange, now I feel a little as if I have lost something..." Xian-Pu said, while watching them interact. "All of a sudden I wish he would have been so casual with me."

"What's in the past should stay there. Don't let this eat you up. Also, it would never have worked out, remember your social status," she reminded her great-granddaughter.

Xian-Pu shook her head. "Great-Grandmother, you know that if the current state of affairs goes on for some more years, there won't be a village left for me to have a position in."

Watching her then walk into the kitchen, Khu-Lon sighed. _How true... Our society is self-destructing, ripped apart by the schism between progressives and conservatives and men and women, and there is nothing we are doing about it. A wonder there wasn't widespread violence yet._

All of a sudden she felt so damn old.

o

At the same time, Jadeite reported to his queen.

"What is your report, Jadeite?" she questioned.

"My queen, everything is going exactly as planned. Our music is a smash hit and by now millions are listening to it. I am only waiting for your command to proceed with the second phase of the plan," he reported to her, very pleased with himself.

Beryl looked thoughtfully into her crystal ball. "You have done well so far, Jadeite. At first I had been a little skeptical, but now your plan is about to bear fruit. Proceed and please our great Master!"

"As you wish, my queen!" he saluted and then vanished from the throne room.

Jadeite reappeared inside a factory, where machines were busy with producing thousands of CDs. Youma disguised as human workers were busily milling around. Jadeite couldn't help but to be very pleased with seeing all this. The whole plan was coming together nicely, with no trouble from the Senshi. True, it had been a gamble, but flying under the radar until it would be far too late for them to make a difference in the end seemed the right way to do it.

**"ATTENTION!" **he called. **"PHASE TWO OF THE PLAN IS TO START! SO MOVE IT!"**

At once, several Youma manned some consoles and activated some machinery that was hidden deep inside the building. On the roof of the factory, several big satellite dishes were moved into position and the signal was broadcast to activate the draining abilities of the music. The effects didn't take long to manifest when thin lines of energy, invisible to the naked eye, were attracted towards them.

Inside, Jadeite looked pleased when the first life-energy, drawn to the antennas collecting it, flowed down the conduits which led into the portal directly into the storage tanks in the Dark Kingdom. It was working; the energy was collected directly from the many stupid people listening to the junk they called music. Individually, it wouldn't be noticeable apart from them becoming a bit sleepy, but taken together...

_These stupid girls won't even notice until it is far too late. Let's see who's laughing now,_ he thought.

* * *

_...Tsukino home, the following day..._

The atmosphere in the Tsukino house was explosive - and it wasn't because of one of Usagi's bad character traits, which on occasion tended to drive the family into despair. The reason was something completely different.

"Shingo, for the last time, turn down this damn noise!" Usagi shouted, standing in front of the door to Shingo's room, loud music filling the corridor.

Usagi didn't look all too happy. In the past days she had developed an annoying headache which always was worse when she was near someone playing this infernal music from J. Stone. Since it had become a hit with the youth, it made her school days a new kind of torture. At least she wasn't alone in her suffering, since all of her friends couldn't stand that new music and didn't feel that well when hearing it.

To her bad luck however, Shingo had turned into a huge fan of J. Stone.

She knew her shouting only made her pounding headache worse, but she was at the end with her patience and by now so agitated that she gave a damn onto niceties. She also wasn't alone in her annoyance. Akane openly complained she hated the music and had decided to either leave the house as often as possible or locked herself up in her room under the roof. Her parents meanwhile were starting to look ready to tell Shingo to get rid of the music. Hearing the same music almost the entire day was wearing their nerves thin. Luna had started the habit of hiding under her bed, complaining that she couldn't stand this screetching anymore, if not outright missing from the house until the evening.

To think of it, all of her friends hated J. Stone's music. They all thought of it as horrible and they couldn't understand what was supposed to be so great about it.

"That's none of your concern!" Shingo shouted back through the closed door, although it sounded rather half-hearted, as if he wasn't trying that hard.

Needless to say Usagi didn't take that well. "Ooohhh, I feel ready to just barge in and throw his stereo out of the window!"

"Not only you, dear..." he mother said.

Ikuko didn't look well. She hadn't been sleeping well recently, complaining that something was constantly grinding on her nerves, and it had become worse since yesterday. Come to think of it, her father didn't look that well, either. It was as if the whole family was sick or something like that. Maybe with exception of Shingo, but she barely saw him these days, just heard his annoying music.

"Shingo, this is your last warning! We have enough of this! Either turn it off, or suffer the consequences!" Ikuko threatened, her patience finally at its end. There was no reply. "All right, you asked for it."

Usagi was surprised, she had always felt that her parents was coddling Shingo, so it was unusual to her that their mother was now actually going through with her threat. With interest she watched her actually opening the door and walking in. To her great relief the music ceased seconds later when Ikuko turned off the stereo. Looking in she saw that her mother had confiscated the CD and was now looking at Shingo with irritation, since he hadn't even bothered to get up from his bed, on which he was lazing around.

"And what do you think you are doing, young man?" Ikuko sharply asked her son.

"I don't feel like getting up," Shingo told her, unconcerned, although he did appear more lethargic than anything else..

As much as Usagi would have enjoyed seeing Shingo getting it, she knew better and left before she'd witness something she'd regret later. This meant she retreated to the one room that was the farthest away: Akane's room under the roof. There was little surprise in seeing Luna there as well, enjoying Akane caressing her. The mooncat had fled upstairs earlier, when Shingo had cranked up the volume even more.

"Is it finally over?" Luna asked, still shaking. Her sensitive feline ears had reacted very badly to the constant attack onto them.

"Yes, Mom confiscated it," Usagi said, causing everyone present to sigh in relief.

"How can anyone listen to junk like this?" Akane growled. She didn't look that good due to a lack of sleep and her mood wasn't good since her sensei had canceled their training, saying she right now wasn't in any condition for it.

"I have no idea. Back on the Moon we had trend music as well, but never something that bad," Luna said, while scratching her ears, as if trying to get them back into working order.

"Well, I don't get why almost everyone else thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread," Akane replied, while shaking her head in disbelief.

All three of them let out a derisive snort. It seemed the youth had gone gaga over this shitty music, while they and their friends found it painful to even listen to it. The previous days had made them annoyed enough to wish J. Stone would go to hell. At least now they would finally get the peace they needed so much.

* * *

_...Monday, July 17th..._

_"And now the local news. The first single of the new talent J. Stone has become a smash hit in the country. Riot-like scenes played out in from of music stores."_

Teenagers were listening to the music, looking a bit tired. Unseeing, thin lines of life-energy leave their bodies through their ears, floating out of the window.

_"Critics say that the music has become like a drug. A spokesman of the company said that this is this usual reply to a new popular trend."_

Over the city of Tokyo, millions of thin strands of life-energy connected to big streams, flowing through the sky towards their ultimate destination.

_"And in other news, the region around Tokyo recently has seen an upturn in cases of exhaustion and sleepiness. The public is in no danger, but city officials are concerned about the impact this could have on the economy."_

Finding its destination, the streams of energy vanished into the big satellite dishes of a factory building.

o

Blue lightning arched between the banks of glowing glass orbs which were pulsing with energy and held in place by green, vine-like growth. Each orb was as big as a car and there were hundreds of them in the huge hall that was situated at the lowest part of the Dark Kingdom. Pulsing energy lines led into the walls, whose lighting systems were working on full power. Youma were busy with installing new orbs as fast as they could, seeing that there were only few left that were empty, but were starting to run out of space.

Far above on a balcony, Queen Beryl was watching the proceedings with satisfaction. "Report, Tethys, how is the storage proceeding?" she questioned her personal servant, one of her most trusted subjects.

A Youma walked up beside her. However, she didn't look like one. Instead she looked completely human. Pale skin, long black hair and a nice face, wearing a blue dress that only went to her knees. Nothing that would indicate her nature.

"Things are going well, your majesty. Indeed, we are actually starting to run out of space for more storage tanks. Once all of these tanks are full, we can use half of it to awaken our great Master, while the other half can contribute to future operations, finally lifting the restrictions we were working under," she reported to her queen.

"Very good, I have to give it to Jadeite that his plan was a full success so far." She then took a closer look at Tethys. "Is there any special reason why you prefer your human form? I see you in it an awful lot."

Tethys hesitated for a moment, her face coloring a light red when she finally answered. "I don't exactly like some parts of my new form. I do prefer having a mouth."

Beryl shook her head. She should have known. Tethys' Youma form was lacking a mouth and nose in the face (although she could still speak without problem) and that had to be a big hit on the ego for someone who was beautiful as a human. However, it was not her problem how her subjects would spend their time, as long as they would do exactly as told.

Right then a Youma from the construction crew appeared. "We have reached the maximum, all space is used up. If the energy flow goes on like this, all tanks will be full in ten hours," he reported, then teleported back downstairs.

"Tethys, make sure that everything goes smoothly," Beryl commanded. "Jadeite!"

Jadeite appeared behind her. "Yes, your majesty?"

"Jadeite, I have to commend you. Your plan has been a complete success! Our energy reserves are nearly back to full capacity. You have done very well! Excellent work! You will be well rewarded," she told him, a very pleased smile appearing on her lips.

Jadeite couldn't help but to smirk in triumph. After the sacking of Nephrite, this was the topping on his success. He now was in a really good standing with Queen Beryl. "I thank you, your majesty, for the trust you put into my project."

"I have to say I am a little disappointed in the Senshi that they did not discover our operation. I think I expected too much of them. Now that our stores are full, we have no more need for the facilities in the city, especially since after the music degrades, it will be useless anyway. So use them to get rid of these brats as you see fit."

"So I have your approval to start the third phase of the plan?" Jadeite asked her.

"Yes. If you succeed, good. If not... well, we can not have everything. You still have done an enormous service for our great Master," Beryl told him.

"I like hearing that," Jadeite told her with a sinister smile.

o

"Is it just me, or does everyone look like they missed several nights of sleep?" Minako wondered aloud during lunch break at school.

The day had indeed been unusually quiet, quieter than expected with the summer holidays only two days away. They at first had not paid any attention to it, but they now couldn't ignore it any longer. The other students did look a bit sleepy and tired. This was in sharp contrast to Friday, where everyone had been normal. Everyone also seemed to have lost a little of their skin color over the weekend.

"Maybe some kind of sickness going around? I heard of something like that in the local news. Sadly that doesn't stop J. Stone," Naru said with a sigh, pointing at some students listening to the horrible music. By now they were sick of it.

Ami didn't bother to comment about the music any longer. "Good that we haven't caught it. My mother says it's like... Ranma, is something wrong?"

Ranma at first didn't answer. He had been on the edge for the whole day, something had been disturbing him. It was not as if he sensed danger, just an undercurrent of something being wrong and it was nagging at him the entire time. It had made him nervous and he was wondering what the matter was. It was as if there was something he was supposed to know and the feeling became stronger by the minute.

"Don't know... I feel as if something is wrong, but I can't put my finger onto it," he said in frustration, wondering what he had forgotten.

By mere coincidence, someone listening to J. Stone walked by and they covered their ears in pain from the music. It was then, when Ranma noticed something was different. The tired-looking student appeared normal to the naked eye, but after all the training, Ranma felt that there had to be more. Just on a hunch, he concentrated to watch the student's life energies... and stopped dead in his tracks at what he saw.

"Ranma?" the girls wondered, when seeing his strange behavior.

"This can't be happening..." he gasped, ignoring the girls and their protests while he ran to the stairs of the fire escape, which would lead him to the roof of the school building.

_This can't be happening! _he fanatically thought, hoping against all reason that he was wrong. Using the skill of seeing life-energies, which his old man had taught him some time ago - and what he had neglected to do recently - had shown him something very disturbing. Genma would slap him left and right for neglecting such a basic skill just because he had forgotten.

Finally he reached the roof, from where he had a good view of the surrounding city. Trying to calm down, he concentrated onto what his father had taught him. The more he concentrated however, the more his unease grew - as if he would regret knowing the truth.

Pulling himself together, he looked up... and froze in terror.

Ranma was no coward. He actually was a very brave person. But right at that moment only his discipline stopped him from screaming in terror. He'd seen the draining of life energy before, but nothing like this. All over the city thin tendrils of life-energy, countless ones, rose into the air, merging into thick strands which in return merged into huge rivers of life-energy, which all flowed off into one direction.

"It IS happening..." he choked out, having lost all calmness for the moment.

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"**__**The Music-Connection, Part II**__**"**_

**Notes:**

**Again sorry if there wasn't as much about Ranma and Ami, but they right now are in a phase of stability, which will only change after the start of the summer holidays. I also hope the night scenes were tasteful enough.**

**As for Tsubasa, I found him to be so ridiculous, I wanted to deal with him in a permanent way. It also gave me a chance to show ryoga again, who by now is sort of a running gag in the story.**

**Also again, sorry if some parts don't mesh together perfectly. This chapter had a troubled production history.**


	17. The Music-Connection, Part II

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

**Thank all goodness that this chapter took far less time to write than the previous two. However, due to me running out of things to write, it is a bit shorter than the previous couple of chapters. This one thankfully finally concludes the energy-arc.**

**Note that specific notes are at the end of the chapter, to avoid spoilers.**

* * *

**Chapter 15: The Music-Connection, Part II**

"This is a complete disaster!"

No one said a word while they watched Sailor Pluto pace back and forth in the garden behind the Hikawa Shrine, which currently was closed, since the elder Hino knew they needed some privacy. They had all gathered there after Ranma's shocking discovery - a discovery which had made them speechless. After all, the Dark Kingdom had managed to completely leave them in the dark about their activities until it was probably already far too late. This realisation had not helped the general mood, since this obviously had been their second big failure after the disaster with Nephrite.

And of course they had to tell Pluto such a major development - something they had not been keen on.

Pluto herself was disturbed. The Dark Kingdom in all previous loops had not started to use really smart or unusual tactics. In retrospect they had acted like morons out of an anime, where the villans would work hard on being defeated in the end. This had obviously changed and she wondered if the end of the loop had somehow caused reality to ensure. She had underestimated them and now they surely had the energy to re-awaken Metallia, although she still wouldn't be a threat for the time being after being dormant for this long.

"When did they get this smart? We kicked their asses next to every time before," Minako finally voiced what everyone of them thought, remembering that the Dark Agency had been pathetic, to say it bluntly.

"I'm sorry to say this, but considering that they destroyed two civilizations, this was mostly their limited resources and beginner's luck on your side. They have now wised up to this and become much more dangerous," Pluto told them the blunt truth, seeing no use in trying to sugarcoat it.

This finally destroyed the last remaining illusions the girls might have had about being a Senshi. They all knew now, that this wouldn't be some kind of fairytale princess story.

Watching the girls trying to come to terms with this, Mamoru couldn't help but to shake his head. "I actually wonder why it took them this long to see this. I was under no illusion that this would be easy."

"Maybe it's because you are more cynical than them due to the way you grew up," Akane observed. "The girls are more idealistic so this is quite hard for them to accept, even if they in a way already knew it. Could be your age as well that you lost all illusions."

"Well, I certainly never had mine. Growing up with my old man on the road made sure of that," Ranma added with a slight hint of bitterness in his voice. In a way he envied the girls and how they still had kept some parts of their childhood innocence.

Akane shook her head. Even after being told what Ranma had to endure during his training, she still had been a bit jealous of his skill. But over time she had seen the price he'd paid for this incredible skill. He was just starting to finally have a normal life; still learning to act his age and mingle with people of his age. All these sacrifices of his happiness for skill now made her glad her own father hadn't been like this. She'd even accepted never being as good as Ranma for this.

"The more I hear about your life, the more I wonder how you managed to keep sane and didn't become a complete recluse," Mamoru wondered, finding that Ranma's upbringing was even worse than him growing up as an orphan.

"Mainly because I learned to ignore his bullshit and had other people teach me some of the stuff he didn't," Ranma explained, remembering the various people he'd met during the trip. "And speaking of my old man... boy, I don't even want to imagine his reaction. I'll get it for being so stupid and not use what he taught me until it was too late."

Ranma by now had recovered from his first shock, but the thought of Genma's reaction wasn't a nice one. His father would be deeply disappointed and claim that his training had been wasted if Ranma wouldn't even use the skills he'd taught him. Not a nice thought and Ranma strangely enough didn't want to disappoint him like that.

Pluto meanwhile had stopped pacing and faced the girls.

"So, let's see. We know it's the new music that's causing the drain. I need a sample of it," she told the girls.

Usagi held up a CD. "My mother confiscated that from Shingo. She certainly won't care if she found it missing, apart from Shingo we all hate J. Stone. And why was that stuff giving everyone in the house, except for Shingo, headaches instead of making them sleepy?"

Pluto at first didn't answer and studied to CD in her hands. Now that she knew what she was looking for, a very close look gave her answers. "Devious... It indeed is the music, the Dark Kingdom managed to implant a weak draining spell into it. It's quite unstable and will self-destruct in some days." She finally looked up. "Have you girls ever considered that being a Senshi also gives you certain protections that are not as obvious?"

"You mean, we are protected from getting our energy drained?" Rei asked, making the connection.

"Partially. Of course, a direct full-power drain would still work, but this weak one doesn't. That is why the music was painful to you, it was a side-effect of your defenses. Before you ask... the magic was created in a way that it radiates onto the people we live with, to ensure the loved ones of the Senshi are protected as well. The only reason why Usagi's brother wasn't protected was because he actively avoids her."

"Doesn't explain why it only annoyed me as well," Ranma threw in. "After all, I don't live together with Ami." He then tried hard to not notice the looks Ami gave him.

"Honestly, that's an enigma to me as well, since it should have drained you as well. Something protected you, but I have a hard time coming up with ideas what it could be," she told him, frustated that this was something she didn't know.

"Well, that's all good and nice but we should finally get to the important part," Mamoru said, finally losing his patience. "What should we do? Can we even do anything? After all, they already got all the energy they wanted."

"That's why this is a disaster," Pluto sighed, feeling her age. "They already got what they want. All we can do is stopping this from getting even more."

"Well, that blows!" Minako grumbled. "It's one thing to lose the day, but to get delegated to the sidelines..."

**"HA HA HA HA HA!"**

Everyone froze when hearing this loud laughter. They knew this voice all too well.

All of a sudden, the sky above Tokyo darkened, black clouds covering it, before a huge hologram of Jadeite appeard in the sky, looking as arrogant as ever. The group had fallen silent at this, waiting for what would happen. They didn't have to wait for long.

**"I am Jadeite! I have a message for the Sailor Senshi! Come to the Darkstone record factory in Ota ward and confront me, if you dare. Tonight at nine! Should you decide to stay away..."**

Jadeite's eyes all of a sudden glowed an angry red, before fire shot out of them into the city below, turning it into a flaming inferno! The group couldn't help but to watch the display in horror. How could someone do such a thing just like that?

Jadeite laughed and snipped his fingers. The fire vanished and the city was undamaged.** "Heh, that was just an illusion to help your imagination with what the consequences will be. If you don't come to me, I will burn down the city for real!" **That said, his picture vanished and the dark clouds with it, returning Tokyo to a sunny afternoon.

"P-please tell me he doesn't have the power to do that!" Usagi asked Pluto, having gone deathly pale.

"I wish I could, but if he gets the time to prepare, he can cause serious destruction with his magic," Pluto told her. This caused Usagi to turn even paler, before she ran to the next bush and threw up into it. The other girls also didn't look much better.

Usagi felt very shaky on her legs and almost collapsed, but was held uptight when two people held her by the arms. To her left she saw Naru - her good friend Naru who would go through hell to help her and whose friendship she'd thought lost after keeping the secret from her. It was at times like this where she was reminded of how precious a loyal friend could be. To her right she saw... Mamoru? That was a bit unexpected. Although they now got along great, she wouldn't have expected him to come to her aid this quick.

Guiding her to a nearby bench, they carefully sat her down.

"Sorry... It just hit me..." Usagi tried to say, but Naru didn't let her continue.

"No, don't... You don't need to apologise. I almost got sick as well, nothing to be ashamed of. It's the shock over how someone can be so casual about murdering people," Naru told Usagi, looking only marginally better than her friend.

"Uh-huh..." Usagi only got out to this, before looking to Mamoru, who seemed to have not suffered from these news. "Uh... thanks."

Mamoru shook his head. "No, not for this. I really couldn't have let you fall to the ground and injure yourself, Bunny, could I? That's basic human decency. Also... I don't like the idea of you getting hurt."

_We really started on the wrong foot,_ Usagi thought, when seeing again that Mamoru was a very decent person.

"Still thanks. Not everyone would have done it," she thanked him again.

Pluto looked at this interaction with a small smile. This already was different from the loops, where Usagi and Mamoru had switched from barely tolerating each other to being a couple at an alarming rate with not much to back it up but their previous lives. Seeing these two starting to appreciate each other not because of the past but because of actually learning about each other was a good change. It certainly felt much more honest and natural.

"So, what do we do now?"

Everyone looked to Ranma.. That he had included himself like that in this problem made it clear he saw it as his problem as well. This was another thing that had changed. Ranma's mere presence - someone with not an ounce of magic, if one ignored the curse which was worthless in battle, not hesitating to fight together with them - had been very helpful to stop the girls from making the same errors again.

"Don't look at me. I know that I have to sit this one out. I'm not as arrogant as to think that I can do anything in this case," Akane said, after having stayed out of the discussion the entire time. "What? I learned where my limits are and this is too big for me to take on. I also need to help making sure Usagi's absence is not noticed."

"This is a really mature attitude," Luna observed, "I wouldn't have expected this from you after first meeting you. I thought of you as a little arrogant kung-fu girl back then. I guess I have to apologise."

"No, I think I deluded myself about how good I am. After seeing what Ranma can do and seeing what you are up against, I could hardly continue to do so, especially after getting sucked dry once. I was forced to grow up faster than others and I've accepted it."

"Well, if you say so..." Luna knew from experience it never went that smooth, but that was Akane's problem.

"Can we finally go back to the problem at hand?" Rei asked, her first shock having faded, making room for an air of annoyance. "Jadeite wants us and he made it clear what happens if we don't come. So, what's the plan? If we just go there we're as good as dead. After all, he's expecting us, so it's a trap."

All eyes went to Pluto, as if waiting what she had to say. "Don't look at me like this. I would love to help you in this battle, alas, I can not. The Dark Kingdom knows who I am and should Jadeite report my mere presence at the current time, they will stop treating you as a minor annoyance and send a big force to crush you utterly. I can only reveal myself after the Silver Crystal is returned to the princess."

She did feel guilty when seeing the disappointed faces, but that couldn't be helped. "So, you won't be able to help us?" Makoto finally said, not even bothering to hide her disappointment.

"Sadly, no. Do not get me wrong, I will monitor the situation, but I will only step in if Jadeite is about to kill you, not earlier." Pluto made sure that she had made her point clear, before continuing. "However, I can give you some good advice: do not rush in like fools. Plan ahead so that you have something to fall back on if needed... Now, please excuse me. I have found a lead to something that I was about to investigate."

That said, Pluto vanished.

"Oh, this is great... although I have to agree with her," Artemis said, before looking to everyone. "Not that you get the wrong impression, Pluto is the strongest Senshi after Saturn in terms of raw magical power, although she is hold by some pretty strict universal laws. It is really the best for her to keep hidden until the right moment, or the enemy is going to pull out all stops, which at the moment, and I mean no offense, would pretty much result in your deaths."

"I still don't like it," Makoto grumbled.

"I think what we like is not the most important thing right at the moment," Ami reminded her, typing on the Mercury computer as if to find something. After contributing next to nothing the entire time, this pretty much was the first time she added to the discussion. "What we right now need is a plan what to do. So, does anyone have any ideas?"

Ranma scratched his chin, feeling fine hair there. _Drat, looks like I finally have to ask Pop to show me how to use a razor..._ He then spoke up. "I'm good at fighting, but tactics isn't my strength. Even I know however that if we play by Jadeite's rules, we lose. We should try to trick him."

"How? He'll make sure we are all accounted for," Makoto reminded him.

Ranma glanced to Mamoru, who seemed to get what was going on in Ranma's head. "He's only expecting you six, not other party crashers..."

o

Jadeite was watching the now silent factory halls from a catwalk on the top level. Most of the worker Youma had already been sent back to the Dark Kingdom, now that their purpose was fulfilled. He right now was waiting for his Lieutenant Youma to give a report on the demontage and destruction process, as well as the preparations for the little confrontation ahead. He was not concerned that the police had surrounded the building, nor that he was getting reports that the army was being called in. They wouldn't dare to enter and those who did would die.

Finally, a slender male Youma with sickly green skin approached him. "Master, everyone else has returned to the Dark Kingdom. We have destroyed or removed everything that could give the enemy even the slightest bit of information; our traces are erased."

"Very good, and what about the preparations for tonight?" Jadeite asked him, not turning towards him.

"Everything is installed and enchanted as you ordered." The Youma then looked a bit uncertain. "Forgive me if this sounds insolent, but why do you want to confront the Senshi on your own, Master? Wouldn't it be better to have a small army at your disposal?"

"You can think for yourself. I like that." Jadeite turned to him. "And the answer is, I could. I chose not to since Youma can not be easily replaced, while this building has fulfilled its purpose and thus I can use it to its fullest. Therefore it's no loss to the Dark Kingdom."

"I hadn't thought about that..."

Jadeite returned his attention to looking over the now abandoned halls. "I do have the home advantage here, so they will get many surprises. I just have to wait for them and keep out the peanut gallery. Now leave. I will wait for them on my own."

"As you wish, Master Jadeite," he saluted, before vanishing.

_Now I just have to wait for them. They surely don't want me to torch part of the city,_ Jadeite thought, returning his attention to keeping unwanted visitors out.

* * *

_...at the factory, near 9 pm..._

The sky was darkening over the over the Darkstone record factory, but the area was far from being peaceful. The police of Tokyo had completely locked off a wide perimeter around the building less than twenty minutes after this Jadeite had put the whole city into panic with his announcement. Even the Japanese army had been called in to secure the area. No civilians should get hurt in case things got nasty.

However, after that, it had become a waiting game for hours, with no one from the opposite side making any move or even showing themselves. The only sign that the building was not abandoned was, that the little scout robot they'd used had exploded just when reaching the entrance. That had been warning enough to stay out and had started the waiting game in which they were constantly watching but didn't dare to do anything, fearing the possible consequences. This didn't help the nervousness when the clocks slowly approached the deadline.

Mostly watching the roads, they had no eye for the roofs - a common failing.

Several blocks away, the group consisting of six Senshi, a re-incarnated prince of Earth, a martial artist and two moon cats was waiting for the return of their scouts. It was very fortunate that they had two scouts that could fly, looked like normal crows and thus could check out the situation without arousing attention. They just hoped they'd hurry, since they only had less than 20 minutes left, before Jadeite would consider them staying away.

While they waited, Ranma again tried to adjust the ninja outfit that she - after all the curse made a nice additional layer of disguise - was wearing again. By now she wondered if she was fated to wear the blasted thing even more often. Maybe she should get something more permanent than this itchy thing?

The others were starting to become nervous as well. Tuxedo Mask was starting to pace back and forth, Mars was concerned about Phobos and Deimos - by now she had become really attached to them despite their quirks, Mercury was alternating at looking on the screen of her computer and watching Ranma (to check is she would still go through with it), Ceres checked the sharpness of her sickle, Jupiter was nervously watching the area and Venus was busy with talking to Luna and Artemis. Sailor Moon was seemingly doing nothing, just standing there, looking really nervous.

Finally, the fluttering of wings announced the return of Phobos and Deimos, who both settled down on a television antenna on the roof.

"All the things we do for you... I had not imagined you would treat us like spy planes when we grew wings. I feel like my wings are cramping up," Phobos complained loudly.

Deimos smacked him onto the head with her left wing. "Oh, shut up!" she barked in annoyance, before turning her attention to her audience. "As for what we saw... Not that much. The lights inside are on but we didn't see anyone inside, apart from Jadeite of course."

"You should have seen it, he looked totally relaxed, clearly expecting you. You're right, this is such an obvious trap it's almost stupid. It makes me wonder what he has in store for you that he doesn't even bother with hiding," Phobos added.

"So, what's your plan? After all, I'd like to see you return in one piece," Deimos asked them.

"The plan stays the same. The girls enter through the front door and then Ranma and I enter through the roof. I know you hate it, but Jadeite is expecting them and hopefully we can surprise him by falling into his back," Mask decided, looking rather grim.

"Just don't take this too easy!" Artemis warned them. "Up until now, Jadeite hasn't taken you entirely serious. This has clearly changed, so do not underestimate him!"

"We are not mothering you, we just want you all to come back to us alive," Luna added, looking very concerned.

Silence fell over the roof, and everyone nodded, before going their ways. The Senshi jumped down to the road so that they would make a public entrance, while Tuxedo Mask and Ranma started to covertly made their way over the roofs to the factory. The mooncats and crows watched them leave, not even bothering to hide their worry.

"I really hope they took it to heart. They'd been lucky up to now and I wouldn't be able to go on if something happens to them. All of them have grown onto me," Luna finally said, her heart heavy.

"We've lived through seeing so many of our charges die of old age, you'd think we're used to it... However, it again hurts all the same every time it happens. I really don't want to experience that so soon again," Phobos said, his normal humor completely absent.

Artemis didn't like the sound of that. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

o

"Sargent, someone is approaching from down the road."

The Sargent in question cursed. Not even bothering to look the other way. "Great, as if we are closing off this area just for fun. These press sharks that used their connections to be close to the action are already bad enough. Get them to leave."

"Eh, Sargent, I think that could be somewhat difficult..."

"If you try to waste my time...oh..." Finally turning around, the Sargent was greeted with all six Senshi approaching. While they looked downright goofy in their outfits, they'd gotten orders to stay out of their way. After all, witness reports and evidence from battle sites made it pretty clear that they were using destructive force and the mayor was not eager to explain deaths on the force with that they had gotten into the crossfire.

Many on the force felt it was some kind of sick joke that a bunch of kids in prissy, hentai-themed outfits was fighting monsters while they, who are professionals in their field, could do nothing but watch and deal with the aftermath. It had bred quite an amount of resentment, but there was little they could do. Arrest the Senshi for vigilantism or destruction of public property? Good luck; and even if they managed to actually pull it off, the public backlash would be devastating. After all, the public adored heroes.

"Call ahead to let them through. That's what the top ordered us to do," he finally said, barely hiding his anger. He didn't want them there, but the madman wanted them and not letting them through could have bad consequences.

So they let them through.

"They don't seem to be happy to see us," Moon commented on the looks they'd gotten from the police after passing them and closing in onto the factory entrance.

"Try to see it from their perspective. They have to let teenage girls in goofy outfits do the job. No wonder they are hurt in their pride. I've heard enough of that during my time as Sailor V," Venus reminded her. "I don't doubt they'd have arrested us for vigilantism if not for the fact that we are the only ones who can fight these things - at least I think we are the only ones."

"The only ones...yet I feel as if my my legs are made of jell-o," Moon added, voicing that she didn't feel well about the whole thing at all.

"Try to think of something nice, or imagine spitting Jadeite into the face. That should help," Ceres offered her friend.

"Anything on your computer?" Jupiter asked Mercury when seeing that the girl was busy with typing and using her visor.

Mercury let out a sigh of frustration. "Nothing. The only thing I get is interference, he must have expected me trying this and jams my signals." Putting away her computer, she turned off her visor. "Sorry, I simply can't get through."

"It's not your fault..." Venus started to say, but was then interrupted.

"Less talking! It's time for the action!" Mars silenced them, while they passed the entrance gate.

**-Clang!-**

They'd barely all entered, when the roller door fell shut behind them, ensuring that they could not just run away. It was such an obvious trap that Jadeite had to be absolutely sure of himself to be so un-subtle. Taking together their courage, they walked further into the factory hall. No one was there, the brightly lit hall was devoid of humans and Youma alike. The only thing they saw were the now silent production machines.

"OK, we're here, Jadeite! Now show yourself!" Jupiter called, unnerved that Jadeite still hadn't shown himself.

"Ha ha ha! Don't you know that patience is a virtue?"

Looking up from where the sarcastic answer had come from, they spotted Jadeite standing on a catwalk at the topmost level, looking down onto them with what could only be described as contempt, mixed with a fair amount of arrogance. Ceres grimaced when she saw that Jadeite was armed this time, holding a sword that was too familiar to her in his right hand.

"I knew you'd come with the right encouragement!" he joked about his own threat to burn down the city.

"Do you want to fight or not? Stop being so smug and come down here!" Mars shouted, annoyed at the smugness that Jadeite showed, since it reminded her of the times she'd seen her old man doing politics. It made her blood boil.

Even from the distance they could see Jadeite's arrogant smirk. "Hmmmm... I don't really want to dirty my hands in direct battle. I have other means to accomplish the deed."

Laughing, he raised his left hand and the machines and equipment started to groan and shudder, ripping themselves out of their foundations while being twisted into three huge mechanical beasts that turned onto the Senshi like starving nightmares ready to feed. It looked like something right out of a horror movie.

"Ahhhh! Crap!" Sailor Moon shrieked, while the metal monstrosities surrounded them.

"Well, how do you like them? So much preparation just to give you a nice surprise!" Jadeite told them, while watching them with amusement. "It seems to have paid off. Now have a nice death."

In a way that Khu-Lon had put them through the wringer now paid off. Some weeks ago the fast attacks that now followed would have ripped them into tiny, bloody shreds right at the beginning. However, the little they got from her was already enough to barely evade death, only getting torn uniforms and bloody scratches. It probably hurt like hell, but right at the moment, with adrenaline pumping, they didn't feel it.

It was not only that they were not yet any good in hand-to-hand - with exception of Jupiter - but also that these things were made of metal and could easily rip or bite off their arms, which made them try and get some distance in order to use their magic against them. That of course put poor Ceres at a serious disadvantage, as she didn't have any distance weapons or spells, and thus had to be protected constantly.

As if to rub salt into it, it also seemed that Jadeite had worked hard to make sure that these things were more difficult to hurt with magic. One of Jupiter's lightning bolts had went right through one of the machines without causing any significant damage apart from two smoking holes. Not that Mercury had any time to find their weakness since she had to constantly avoid getting cut in two by something that looked like a big chainsaw.

"Either you die or you come out of this so wounded that I can easily finish you off. You see, I took everything into account!" Jadeite gloated.

While this went on, on the roof...

"Finally!" Ranma quietly cursed when they had finally managed to reach the roof without causing attention - not an easy task because of the searchlights the police used to illuminate the building. "Really loud inside. We should..."

**-cracccclllliirrrrrr-**

Ranma was interrupted when all of a sudden something looking like an engine block was thrown through the glass of the overhead window, shattering in, and vanished from their sight.

Not even bothering with stealth, they both approached the shattered window and looked down inside to see a literal battlefield raging and the girls were not in a good condition. Their uniforms were badly torn, they were bleeding from numerous slash wounds and were covered in bruises. Yet they fought back as hard as they could, although the metallic monstrosities - which looked like they had been conjured from a horrible nightmare - still came back for more, despite the damage done to them.

Jadeite lorded over all of it from a catwalk that wasn't that far below them - only several meters separated him from them, so they could hear what he was saying, despite all the noise from the battle below.

"Wouldn't have expected them to hold out this long... Better speed it up a little..."

A big crystal spear appeared in his left hand, radiating dark energies. Jadeite then looked sown and spotted one of the Senshi having her back towards him while defending herself against the biggest of the machines. "You go first..."

_No! No, you won't!_ was the only thought going through Ranma's head when seeing this.

She didn't hesitate to jump into the fray, especially seeing it was Mercury that Jadeite was about to kill! Jumping through the hole she aimed her foot directly at the base of Jadeite's neck. What Jadeite was about to do made Ranma even forget any reservations about killing for a moment - the thought of losing Ami forever was too horrible.

"OOUUCH!"** -WWWOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM-**

Her foot connected perfectly, but instead of killing Jadeite, it just seemed to hurt him... a lot. His spear zoomed away with his concentration broken and instead of Mercury, it hit the huge machine, which - not hardened against Jadeite's own magic - spectacularly blew up in a big explosion, sending shrapnel everywhere.

Ranma quickly kicked Jadeite into the chest, causing him to be thrown back several meters. However, it only seemed to make him mad. "You again!" Any trace of amusement was now gone from him. "You dare to interfere again?"

"What does it look like, jerk?" Ranma spat back, barely controlling her desire to pound Jadeite to paste.

Jadeite summoned his sword back into his hands. "I thought our previous encounter would have been warning enough to stay away. Seems I hadn't been clear enough, so I give you a reminder!"

Ranma had no chance to dodge whatever Jadeite threw at her. It felt like an invisible fist hit her hard, throwing her backwards and **-sklliiiiirrr- **crashing through the windows of the office and out of sight while broken glass with traces of blood flew everywhere.

Jadeite however had no time to gloat when another pair of feet hit him, this time directly into the face. Tumbling over the edge, he fell to the floor below. Tuxedo Mask might not have been good at martial arts, but slamming his feet into someone's face was not that hard. While landing, he just saw Jadeite fall into a big pile of boxes, sending unshipped CDs everywhere.

Right now his concern was, if Ranma had sustained serious injury when thrown through the glass and he ran down the catwalk to see if quick first aid was needed.

Downstairs meanwhile, the girls were trying to capitalize on the sudden destruction of their biggest foe.

Venus had finally managed to ensnare one of the machines with her chain, trying to ignore the pain that shot up her spine from her severely injured legs, while Mercury and Mars blasted the the monster at the same time. What at first looked stupid actually was a good idea. While the monster was hardened against the destructive powers of their magic, the strong thermal shocks of rapidly changing heat and cold fused all the joints shut and also caused the metal to become incredibly brittle. Finally Venus released her chain and blasted one Crescent Beam directly into the monster, causing it to shatter into pieces of junk.

At the same time, Sailor Moon had found a surprising weakness in the other monster. While Jadeite had certainly proofed it against magic, the concentrated and amplified sound waves coming out of her hair ornaments were not magical in nature. She would have never dreamed that her shrill screams were such effective weapons, causing the monster to fall apart. Jupiter didn't waste a moment to melt down the smaller parts with lightning in order to make sure it would stay down.

Ceres, aware that she should better let the others deal with the monsters since he melee powers were not of great use against them, carefully approached the boxes where Jadeite had fallen in. She was not in best shape. He left arm hurt, it probably was broken and she didn't dare to use it, she was bleeding out of many cuts and was covered in bruises while her uniform had been reduced to shreds that just barely covered her modesty. It probably would have fallen off if not for the magic gluing it to her body.

Holding her sickle tight, she approached, but all of a sudden the heap of boxes exploded and Jadeite stood there, looking angry. With his face slightly bruised, he looked even more menacing. "I start to get really angry." He then spotted Ceres. "Well... that should compensate me. And as you can see, I have got my sword with me this time!"

Fear rooted Ceres onto the spot for a second while horrible memories from her previous life invaded her. The memory of Jadeite chopping off her head and the horror of being fully aware of being a cut-off head for some moments, before the severe shock had caused all awareness to flee her.

**-swip-** She barely managed to shake off the horrors of the past and avoided a sword strike that otherwise would have cut her in two.

"Scared? Well, you should be!" Jadeite said with a slasher grin, before trying to chop her head off.

Ceres barely managed to get up her sickle to stop the strike. Her head was feeling as if it would burst apart and the horrors of the past were slamming into her very being. She could almost feel the phantom pains of her head being cut off. It felt like she could hardly breathe.

"Shut up... Just shut up..." she tried to snarl, but it came out more like a whimper.

"You seem to remember well what happened last time. Good girl..." Jadeite mocked, while ignoring what went on behind him. At least until he heard something and jumped aside. A glowing diskus barely missed him and sliced through a nearby girder.

"The peanut gallery, of course," he hissed when seeing that the other Senshi had finished off his machines and were ganging up on him.

"It's six against you and we reduced your machines to junk. Still such a loudmouth?" Jupiter challenged him. By now she knew why the others had such an intense dislike of Jadeite. "Even your sword can't even the odds."

Jadeite laughed about the threat. "Ha... that only shows how green you girls still are. Let me give you a little lesson..."

Jadeite just held out his left hand. At first, nothing seemed to happen, until suddenly a huge piece of metal junk barely zoomed by Mercury's head! The girls suddenly noticed all of the junk starting to float and then zooming towards them like bullets. Only seconds later they were in the middle of a storm of junk hitting them left and right, pushing them into a worlds of pain.

Jadeite laughed. "You see, I don't actually need a weapon."

The girls desperately tried to defend themselves against the onslaught, but it was simply too much and the pain made it almost impossible to concentrate. Mars went down when something heavy slammed into her face and blood streamed out of her shattered nose. Jupiter screamed when a heavy piece of machinery crashed into her ribs, a sickening crunch showing that some of them now were quite broken. Then something hit Moon at the back of her head, nearly knocking her out and throwing her at Jadeite's feet.

"Maybe I should release you from your misery," Jadeite mocked, raising his sword.

"Don't touch her!" a male voice shouted.

Before he could react, an explosion swept Jadeite off his feet, blasting him to the other side of the room. His concentration broken, all the junk fell to the ground. Jadeite however barely got up, before a fist connected hard with his jaw, almost sending him back to the floor. Finally getting up his barrier to protect himself from physical assault, he saw that it was the stupid ninja girl - although her partly ripped off and bloody costume showed that she probably wasn't in best shape any longer. He could also see that clown in the tuxedo helping up the Sailor Moon brat.

"You seem to never learn!" Jadeite growled angrily, while wiping the blood from his bruised jaw.

Ranma however was in no mood for a witty remark. Getting nasty wounds from broken glass did that. While she before had already known Jadeite was a dick, what he'd done to the girls - seeing them almost broken and bleeding out of countless wounds - ticked her off. "Bastard. Would love to rip off your balls and feed them to you."

"Big words, girl, but you can't touch me since you have no magic and these sorry excuses of Senshi are too green to get through," Jadeite said, before ignoring her, turning his attention to Mask. "As for you... from which costume party did you come from?"

Tuxedo Mask was beyond talking. Somehow seeing Sailor Moon getting hurt had set him off. His face grim, he slowly approached Jadeite. "You hurt my friends... you don't show even the slightest bit of remorse for doing so."

"So what? You want to beat me up with your cane?" Jadeite mocked him.

Deep inside, Mask felt furious, but all the anger was channeled into more: determination. he would not let Jadeite get away with this. Without him even noticing, his determination unlocked more of his powers and changed him. His outfit made place for the black-and-silver armour of Earth nobility and his cane changed into an impressive looking broadsword. He now no longer was Tuxedo Mask; he had put on the armour of Prince Endymion.

All his confidence left Jadeite when seeing this.

"WHAT? IMPOSSIBLE! He's dead!" Jadeite gasped, while taking several steps backwards. The sudden appearance of Prince Endymion rattled him a lot, since it had been so unlikely he'd be even there.

**-Wham!-**

Jadeite's concentration had left him - bad idea, since Ranma didn't hesitate to attack him from the side as soon as his shield was down, her flying kick sending him flying against the wall. Jadeite was dazed and then barely got his sword up to protect himself against Endymion's sword strike. A second later his head would have been split in two. All of a sudden he was in the defensive. The next strike barely missed him when he dodged, instead leaving a deep gash in the wall where he'd been.

That however was not his only problem, since a fireball barely missed him and set a part of the factory on fire. He cursed when realizing that he'd forgotten the Senshi, who, while in really bad shape, were pissed off enough to ignore their pain right now. Sailor Mars looked like a wild animal ready to rip him apart with her badly bruised face, broken nose and covered in her own blood.

"Ah!" Jadeite hissed when an attack from a different angle ripped open his left sleeve, a thin, bleeding cut appearing over his arm. He'd totally forgotten Sailor Ceres, and her sickle was absurdly sharp.

Things did not look good for him. Behind him, everything was on fire, all the Senshi, Endymion and the ninja were ganging up on him and he had no idea what kind of power the newly awakened Endymion held. All in all, the situation had degraded very fast for him. had he been controlling the situation bare minutes ago, it now was out of control.

Jadeite had to make a decision, fast. And he did.

Holding out his arms, a shockwave sent his foes off their feet, causing Ranma to crash into a pile of sharp-looking junk. "You might have won this day, but you haven't heard the last of me. I'll give one a parting present!"

Jadeite pointed to a fuse box at a wall and a lever was switched down. He then teleported away.

What he did became apparent immediately when explosions shook the whole building and flames started to engulf every corner, threatening to lock them in. It was as if Jadeite wanted to spite them even after what had happened.

"We should better get out of here!" Endymion cursed, before suddenly he turned back into Tuxedo Mask to conserve energy.

"How? We can hardly walk through these flames to reach the roof stairs and I have no desire to be riddled with police bullets if we go through the front door! They know you, not us two!" Ranma complained, while looking at the wall of flames that prevented them from getting through to the roof exit.

"Oh, of all..." Mars, grabbed their hands. "Hold tight onto me!"

Both of them weren't thrilled when Mars dragged them to the fire wall that cut them off from the stairs... at least until they remembered that Mars was practically immune against natural fire (sadly not magical one, but she didn't know that one yet). As long as they held onto her, she could protect them from the flames. When she re-appeared moments later, both of them were already running up the stairs to get out of this flaming inferno.

The girls tried to quickly make their way to the exit, as the temperatures were rising fast and it became hard to breathe due to the smoke. Thankfully, Mercury was quite capable of dousing the flames that blocked the way, but one final obstacle remained.

"Oh no, it's still closed!" Venus cursed, seeing the still closed gate.

"Leave that to me!" Jupiter said, fixing the gate in her sight.

At the same time, outside, everyone was on the edge.

It had been bad enough when they'd heard the sounds of hard battle from the inside and something occasionally smashing out of the windows, but then all of a sudden it had grown quiet before explosions shook the whole factory, setting it on fire. The firefighters were on their way but everyone present was very nervous by now.

**-BLAM!-**

An explosion blew the roller gate open from the inside. If not for sheer discipline, shots would have been fired right then. Weapons drawn, they watched someone appear from inside, their shadowed outlines hard to make out with all the fire in the background. Then finally they recognised the Senshi, but even policemen hardened by years of service couldn't help but to gasp at how the girls now looked like.

The Senshi that walked out of the inferno looked like they had gone through hell. They were blood-splattered (mostly their own), heavily bruised and littered with cut wounds. The way they held themselves left no doubt they'd suffered broken bones. Their uniforms were in tatters and only barely preserved their modesty. Also, they looked tired... very tired.

No one stopped them when they slowly walked away until they vanished in the dark of the night.

* * *

_...Dark Kingdom..._

"You are back awfully early, Jadeite. Was the battle really that easy?" Beryl questioned Jadeite as soon as he had appeared before her. She then took in the damage to his torn uniform and his bloodied and bruised face. "Although it seems it was a little rough on you."

"My queen, I abandoned the battle after discovering information that is of uttermost importance," Jadeite said, still trying to come to terms with it himself.

"What could be so important that you abandoned the battle?" she wondered, looking hard to him.

Jadeite pointed at her crystal ball, replaying the event in question from his mind. Beryl watched him mocking Tuxedo Mask, and how suddenly the man changed into someone very familiar, wearing the battle armour of Terran nobility. Her eyes widened when she recognised Endymion, although the man's real face was still hidden behind the strong disguise magic that projected the long-dead prince's features over it. The picture was frozen and she stared at it for several more seconds.

"Endymion... How is that possible?" she finally hissed to no one in particular.

"I harbour the guess that he was reborn as well. I felt it was of uttermost importance to bring these news to you right away," Jadeite said, himself a little surprised at the strong reaction.

Beryl stared at the picture for some more moments, before finally looking up to Jadeite. "You have done the right thing in bringing these news to me right away. Endymion's presence changes the situation significantly. Leave, Jadeite. Recover from battle before you help with the preparations for the awakening of our great Master Metallia."

"As you wish, my queen," he saluted, glad that he didn't have to admit that his surprise had cost him the advantage in battle.

Watching him leave, Beryl then returned her attention to the picture on the crystal ball. Endymion's sudden re-appearance had come out of the blue and that he was on the side of their enemies was even worse. Endymion was supposed to be hers, yet he again sided with Princess Serenity, even though she still hadn't made a personal appearance, deciding to hide for the time being and instead sending forth this bad decoy in the form of Sailor Moon.

"Endymion..." she whispered in longing. However, it wasn't the longing of a lover but that of a depraved stalker.

* * *

_...at the same time..._

"Ouch... ouch... ouch..." Ranma groaned while her mother was busy with cleaning her wounds. It felt somewhat less humiliating that this was done while she still was a girl.

Mamoru was busy enough with healing the wounds the girls had suffered during the battle and which their magic was straining with, so she was right now on her own. After all broken bones were more important than her wounds. It did feel somewhat strange that the family room of the Saotome house was transformed into a temporary sickbay, but it had been closer than the Hikawa Shrine, something they appreciated in their weakened state.

"Try to hold still, son," Nodoka told Ranma, while cleaning out a nasty cut on her shoulder. "This is quite the number of injuries."

"Well, I didn't pick being thrown through a window nor nearly getting mauled by some cheap magic," Ranma complained.

To be honest, she felt like shit, Jadeite had done quite a number on all of them, herself included, and she by now was itching on starting the special training so that she wouldn't get cut up like this again. Right now sitting almost naked in front of her mother, wearing only her boxers, while she was cleaning her numerous injuries, was bad enough. Thank all goodness she did that in the privacy of her room - not only for her sake but also to prevent distracting Mamoru.

"I do not think you like getting injured if it is that what you mean," Nodoka corrected herself, before starting to put bandages over the wounds. That should hold until they should be healed. "Don't even think about changing back until tomorrow," she warningly added, feeling there was no need to aggravate the injuries.

Ranma was annoyed at that, but unlike some months ago, where this would have been quite bad, she shrugged it off and pulled a muscle shirt and some pants on, before walking down the stairs to see how the girls were doing.

At the foot of the stairs she saw that the situation was mostly under control. Mamoru seemed to take a break in order to recover from such a serious use of his healing magic while the girls didn't look injured any longer, although the way they moved and their grimaces made it clear they still were in quite an amount of pain. The ice packs all of them were using were a good indicator. She caught a glimpse of her old man patrolling the grounds in order to keep anyone out.

"Everyone back on their feet?" she asked, looking around.

"Back on our feet: yes. Feeling great: no," Rei said, while checking her freshly healed nose. She hissed since it still was tender. Considering it had been smashed half an hour earlier, this still was progress.

"Until you guys stepped in, he _humiliated_ us..." Naru groaned, while glancing to the family blade on the wall. After tonight, swords would make her nervous for the near future. She'd probably have nightmares from that experience. "Up to then he'd had all the advantages and we stepped right into it. What were we thinking?"

"Nothing. We thought we could take it but he took us by surprise," Makoto answered the question, while feeling up her still tender ribs, which had been broken during the battle. "It could have been worse. Imagine us stumbling in there without any kind of plan."

Everyone shuddered, knowing how that would have ended.

"Essentially we achieved next to nothing tonight apart from Mamoru finally having access to Endymion's abilities," Ami added the only positive of that night's fight, while holding a hag of ice to her still hurting head. "Whatever good it will do us once Beryl learns of the fact that Endymion got reborn. Good, Jadeite didn't burn down the city as well, but that was just us reacting to his threat."

"And that's not all of it..." Minako laughed without a shred of humor from where she was sitting, resting her weak legs and scratching Artemis behind the ears. "I do remember some cameras going off when we left the burning factory. Trust me on that: we'll make front page in all our bloody, battle-worn glory. Just wait until you see tomorrow's headlines."

Collective groans went through the room. No girl wanted to be seen like this.

Having heard enough, Ranma approached Ami. "How are you feeling? Everything back in one piece?" she asked.

"My head is killing me. It feels like someone is stabbing a knife through it. Thank goodness the ice pack is dulling the worst of it. I can't wait to get into bed," Ami admitted, allowing Ranma to hold her. "I'm surprised we got out of this alive. Part of me still needs a bit to realize it."

Getting that Ami right now needed her in order to calm down, she held her close.

Mamoru by now had recovered some of his strength and walked to Usagi, who sat in front of the open sliding doors and watched the night sky - at least what light pollution left of it - and the crescent moon above them. She didn't even seem to notice that Luna had fallen asleep in her lap while correcting the ice pack that was bound to her head.

"Bunny?"

She didn't look to him, but the expression on her face was clear; she was still trying to come to terms with this newest failure - after all it was nothing else but failure, since Jadeite had already gotten what he wanted before they even knew of it. She didn't break out in tears, but the air of self-doubt surrounding her was undeniable.

"It doesn't get any easier, does it?" she wondered, while looking at the brooch in her hand, which had changed her life so much.

Mamoru shook his head. "I wish I could say it does... "

They didn't say anymore about it, both of them hoping that that there would be light after darkness was more than just a platitude.

o

...

**-Drrrrriiiinnnggg-**

...

**-Drrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiinggggg-**

...

"Yes, this is the witches bureau."

"Eugial, I just returned from an audience with our great Pharaoh. He is concerned about today's events and has ordered us to double our efforts."

"With all respect, Professor, this is impossible right now. We lack the needed equipment."

"And this is why I call you. Try to find everything I need. Pay horrendous prices if needed, but get me all the equipment I need! I'm still just at the beginning of my research and need everything ASAP!"

"As you wish, Professor. I try to get everything over the next days."

"Good..."

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"**__**The Shadow Hunter**__**"**_

**Notes:**

**Finally this arc is done, meaning I can again concentrate more on character development, especially since the next chapter is mostly about Ranma and Ami, hen questions are answered and a whole new can of worms is opened up.**

**I wanted to make Jadeite dangerous without him just being too powerful. Hopefully I managed to do so in a belivable way.**


	18. The Shadow Hunter

You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!

Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.

**This went surprisingly fast but the chapter grew to monstrous size - I think this is my biggest one yet. There's lots of story progression in this one, thus it was a bitch to write.**

**Note that specific notes are at the end of the chapter, to avoid spoilers.**

* * *

**Chapter 17: The Shadow Hunter**

"I still feel as if I got bashed with a big club repeatedly. Poor Mamoru looked ready to fall into bed once he was done with all the healing," Naru winced.

"He said mending bones took a lot out of him, so excuse him if he didn't manage to cure every little thing. Ranma's slash wounds were quite serious as well and that took a lot out of him, too," Makoto reminded her, trying to ignore her own soreness.

Yesterday's events were still fresh on their minds while they were walking towards school at the morning. The streets were mostly empty, Tokyo still had not fully recovered from yesterday's events and panic. Quite a number of stores were still closed, the otherwise notorious traffic was only sporadic and the streets looked emptier than usual, although the number of students on the way to school seemed to be the same. They had no heard anything about school and imagined that perhaps the authorities wanted everything to return to normal as quick as possible.

Of course, there also were the newspapers.

While they had managed to dodge the bullet of being seen on national TV, pictures of them leaving the burning factory had appeared, together with quite speculative reports. Up until then, Senshi sightings and news had been either low-key events or very localized - even Sailor V had not been that prominent on a national scale. The previous reports and pictures of them had been limited to greater Tokyo. Now things had changed and even the national newspapers were writing about them and there was lots of speculation about their motives.

That of course also meant that the ones who were not OK with them voiced their opinion as well. Some said the Senshi were solving as many problems as they are creating, implying they they were causing these problems themselves. Some even called called for arresting them, citing the vigilantism and the caused property damage. The girls were hurt by these words - they gave their best to protect everyone and that was how some thanked them for it. They had no idea what Pluto had to say about it, since they had not seen her since yesterday and she didn't answer her communicator.

Walking up to the school, they were surprised to see that students were already leaving again.

"Are they all playing hooky or did something happen we don't know?" Akane wondered, raising an eyebrow at the situation.

It became even more confusing when they saw the teachers standing in front of the school, talking to incoming students who then would quickly turn around and leave. Spotting Ms. Meiou and Ms. Haruna, who currently were not busy with talking to students, they approached them.

"Did we miss something? Why is everyone sent away?" Usagi asked right away, forgetting proper etiquette. Thankfully, both women didn't seem to mind right at the moment.

"You could say you missed something, although it is no fault of yours. Due to the continued disruption of public life in the wake of yesterday's events, the prefecture government decided that all schools in the 23 special wards of Tokyo are to start the summer break today already in order to help calming the whole situation. They only decided it too late to spread it with the media - practically when most students were already on their way. So all schools were ordered to send their students back home after informing them of the situation," Ms. Meiou informed them.

"YES!" Usagi cheered, before realising that she was doing so in front of the teachers. "Eh... sorry?"

"I sincerely hope you won't slack off. I will test my students once the summer break is over. In case you fail that test, it means extra homework," Ms Haruna sternly reminded Usagi. "I won't tolerate you destroying the small progress you made recently."

Usagi looked horrified at these news and Makoto didn't look too happy, either. "Sensei, please tell me it is just your idea and that none of the other teachers are doing this."

"It was until now. Thanks for reminding me to tell the other teachers as well. It's a really good idea," Ms. Haruna replied.

"Oh yes, thank you so much, Makoto!" Usagi complained and Minako didn't look happy as well. It was no secret that both of them disliked school-related stuff. Makoto had the decency to look sheepish after realising what she just did.

Watching the group leave, Ms. Haruna looked a little envious. "I really envy today's young girls. I wish I could be this young and carefree again."

"Trust me, we should accept our lives and should make the best of it," Setsuna reminded her. _You have no idea how wrong you are. Carefree... I wish I could give that back to them, but it's too late for that,_ she silently added.

While Setsuna was left in thoughts, the teenagers were quickly regaining their spirits.

"I say we should get Rei and then enjoy this rare opportunity! When do we have the morning free in the middle of the week?" Minako suggested.

"You better enjoy it. Remember what Khu-Lon (Ami did learn to pronounce it) told us; she'll put us through a lot to make sure we are ready. She also said with Xian-Pu on break from school, our training will shift from toughening us up to actual lessons as well," Ami reminded Minako, deflating the blonde outright.

That sobered them up. "I can't even blame her. After how Jadeite mopped the ground with us, I gladly accept anything that halps us to avoid a repeat performance," Naru said, trying to not remember yesterday's events. It had, as predicted, given her nightmares. "I guess there go any big plans for the summer."

"Well, I won't complain. The old woman can finally teach me all that awesome stuff she promised me to, which means the next time Jadeite crosses my path, he will regret it," Ranma said, feeling the anticipation, although he still was a bit unnerved at the idea of being bombarded with boulders.

"Since our summer is full, what about you, Akane? Any plans to visit your family over the summer?" Makoto asked Akane.

Akane shook her head. "Not right away. I plan to wait a little before I go home for several weeks. Right now the situation is still a little... let's say, delicate. My father is getting better due to his therapy, but his doctor said it would be better if I wait a little before visiting. I also have to take into account that Kasumi finally started dating and obviously wants some time for herself before I come back for the summer."

"She's dating? You mean that young doctor you told us of?" Minako eagerly asked, smelling something juicy.

Akane gave Minako a look that made her shut up, before she continued "Yes, Doctor Tofu. Remember how I said that he'd been in the hospital for some time? He finally learned why he was always freaking out when meeting her. It turned out that there was something wrong with his brain - something about a chemical imbalance. Whenever he'd get too emotional - which happened whenever Kasumi visited him - it'd cause havoc in his head. He's had surgery and is taking meds and up to now it looks really good. Kasumi also seems to be much more happy now that she's gaining a social life."

"What about you other sister?" Naru asked.

Akane grimaced a little. "Nabiki doesn't want anyone near her. It had always been like this and I don't think anyone can do anything about it. You can't help someone who doesn't want help." That was a good indicator for everyone to drop the matter.

Even Ranma picked up on that and changed the topic. "How's your training going? Last I heard it got canceled."

"Even sensei Chun-Li is now feeling the effect of her pregnancy. She says it will be some time before she's back and in shape. Seinsei Ryu takes over for the time being. And it actually goes well. I had never seen anyone fight like this. No offense, Ranma, but both of them could mop the floor with you," Akane told them, showing lots of respect for both of her sensei.

Ranma whistled. "Man, I really want to meet these two. They sound awesome."

With the discussion steered into more safe topics, they walked towards the Hikawa Shrine in order to wait for Rei to return from school. None of them did want to return straight to home, not so early in the morning. Ranma was walking a bit behind the girls, not wanting to be too close while they were gossiping. He wasn't exactly looking to the side, when suddenly...

"Ooof!"

By reflex, Ranma caught whatever had just collided with him from the side. Getting a closer look, he saw it was a girl, no older than twelve, wearing the uniform of a school whose colors he didn't recognise. The girl did look somewhat pale but otherwise didn't seem hurt by the collision. When she looked up to him he was surprised to see she had the most striking violet eyes he'd ever seen.

"Oh... sorry... I... I didn't look where I was going," the girl stammered, obviously embarrassed, while Ranma helped her to her feet.

"There's no damage done. This happens to all of us sometimes," Ranma said. "No need to apologise."

"Oh." The girl didn't seem to be used to someone being nice to her. "You really don't blame me?"

Ranma had the distinct impression that she was used to being blamed. "Why should I? Now come, kiddo. I think you want to get home since school's out early."

She did look in surprise to him. "Thanks... for not blaming me," she carefully thanked him, before walking away.

"You were really good there. You handled this far better than I expected," Minako commented and Ranma only now saw that the girls had watched him the entire time.

"She's just a cute kid. No way I'm could be mean to her," Ranma said, looking to where the girl was walking away.

"I recognised her uniform. She goes to the Mugen school. That's a very expensive private school, so she must be from a rich family," Ami added. "Just to give you an idea: my mother would be unable to pay for it. It's that expensive."

"Well, even though I probably won't ever see her again, it still felt good that I was nice to her," Ranma shrugged, before they continued on their way. After all, in a city of eight million people, how big was the chance they'd meet again?

o

"Thanks that you covered for me. Why is it that big groups of girls almost always get the topic of discussion to embarrassing things?" Ranma asked Ami, while they walked up to his house.

Ami shook her head. "Do not get me wrong, I do like it sometimes, but this one became too uncomfortable for me, especially the way they looked to me as if to remind me that I'm the only girl of the group with a boyfriend. I do have my limits."

That was one of the reasons why Ranma could relate to Ami: she was not overly girly. Sure, she still enjoyed girl-stuff, but overt displays of such tended to make her uncomfortable. Thus was why she sometimes didn't hang out with the other girls and preferred to visit him - outside of her usual visits to his house after school of course. She was open-minded to things they could do in their free time, another thing he liked about her.

Both of them knew they were odd ducks relationship-wise. They were hardly fitting the picture of the young couple. First they were almost complete opposites with him being so physically attuned, while Ami was highly intellectual. Their relationship also hardly came along the traditional way. Their friendship had turned into careful love due to being forged when helping each other in conflict. Lastly, they didn't act as expected. One would guess they were just friends, since Ranma and Ami didn't like public displays of affection, they preferred to do these in private. Also, most teenagers would be disappointed to hear that they hadn't 'done it' yet. Both of them felt they weren't ready yet for actual intimate action.

Both of them however preferred it this way. Both were teenagers who were painfully new to these things and they simply needed their own way to ease into a deeper relationship. That of course didn't stop them from liking each other - they only went their own way about expressing it.

"I wonder how we can fill our free time besides training. After all, there's no homework," Ranma wondered.

"Before I met you, my summers was filled with extra studies and summer school," Ami remembered with a grimace. That time hadn't been fun and she still felt the pain of how lonely she'd felt. "Still, I guess I won't be home too often over the summer. There's all the training we have to do, and, well..."

"I thought you're getting along with your parents?" Ranma asked.

"I do! But... after being apart for such a long time, they always tend to... overcompensate. It can be quite embarrassing to be in the same apartment with them for the first weeks. I love them dearly, but I don't need to know of their attempts to finally release me of being a single child," Ami finally explained, blushing a little.

"I can understand that..." Truth to be told, Ranma didn't even want to imagine his own parents doing that - thankfully he'd been spared from accidently witnessing this, since Genma was not yet welcome in the master bedroom - although he was getting closer.

Walking by a dark side alley, Ranma remembered something he'd put on hold until now. He did feel the courage to do it. "You know, Ami, there is something I almost forgot to do."

"Really? What is it?" Ami wondered and gasped when Ranma effortlessly picked her up and carried her into the dark alley. "Ranma!"

"Don't worry..." Once out of sight, he put her back onto her feet. "I just want us to be alone... Since I didn't give this to you yesterday."

Ranma pulled her close and Ami opened her mouth in surprise, only for Ranma's lips to touch hers. Her first surprise melted away and she then understood. She was not used to Ranma being the aggressor in this, but it felt really nice. Arms around each other, their bodies were pressed together while the kiss escalated quickly into a tongue-wresting match which ended when Ami managed to shove her's and Ranma's tongue into his mouth. Both teenagers were a little red in the face and literally glowing when they finally parted, not minding the strands of saliva that connected their mouths for some more moments.

"That- that was really good," Ami said while trying to regain her breath. "This was for yesterday?"

"You were very brave yesterday... This is my 'thank you'," Ranma answered. "Was it OK for me to do so?" he added, which was more like Ranma.

"It... it was great." That wasn't a lie, it had felt really good. Ranma seemed to have overcome his awkwardness concerning kissing. They held onto each other for some more moments, before Ami noticed something. "I think we should better calm down now."

Separating, they both knew what was wrong. Ami felt a little hot and damp between her legs while Ranma's pants sported a noticeable bulge in front. Both of them gave the other a slightly guilty smile before they took deep breaths to calm down and some minutes later, they left the alley, acting as if nothing had happened.

Finally reaching the house, they were surprised when Nodoka was already waiting for them in the family room, looking at a letter. She then noticed them when looking up. "Ranma, dear, this letter came while you were away. Please read it thoroughly, since it concerns you."

Taking the letter, Ranma read it twice, before looking up. "Isamu Nakamura, my great-grandfather? Didn't even know he existed until now."

"You've met him before, but that was over ten years ago. You can't remember it," she explained.

Ranma looked pained for a moment. The loss of his early childhood memories in a pit full of cats still was a topic he didn't like. "I can't remember him at all."

"I wanted to bring it up, but it seems he beat me to it. He already was quite old at your birth; it is a small wonder he is still alive and in such good shape. He was a good fighter until his age and decreasing health forced him to retire from it. You'll like him, he is a lot like you," Nodoka explained.

Ranma took another look at the letter. "I understand that he wants to see me, although I have no idea, why."

"I mentioned your return to him in a letter and I think he finally wants to meet his great-grandson again. I was not exactly in my right mind during your childhood, and after so many years he wants to see how you've fared," Nodoka finally admitted, feeling the shame come back to the surface.

Ranma sensed his mother feeling guilty and quickly went on. "That's well and all... but I really don't get why he wants to see Ami as well. What is that about 'meeting a possible addition to the family'?"

Ami went red when hearing this. "Ranma! He wants to see if I would be a good fit for you. A good fit as a wife, that is."

Ranma barely held back a groan. "Really...?"

"No worries, he would never judge you or force you into anything," Nodoka quickly said, remembering how Isamu had ripped into her parents some years ago concerning her upbringing. The man really wasn't someone for archaic traditions. "I think it is completely harmless and he just wants to meet Ami - I, eh, might have accidently revealed you are together."

There was no comment from both teenagers, but the air of annoyance was answer enough.

"Please consider visiting him..."

* * *

_...two days later..._

"I understand you and Ranma visiting him, even bringing his girlfriend along, but I still don't understand why you want to have me along. Isamu made no secret of his dislike of me," Genma finally complained while the taxi was driving up to the house.

Nodoka had expected this question since Genma had learned of the invitation two days ago. He had said nothing while they had still been at home, nothing during the way to the train station, and nothing during the train ride to the village in which her grandfather had his house. It was remarkable that he'd managed to keep himself from asking the question for this long. It also was a good thing, since she'd memorised what she'd tell him.

"If you remember, he demanded you to be present. Since I can read between the lines, he wants to make sure to have you in his line of sight when meeting Ranma after all these years. After your first meeting, you should know what to expect if you displease him," Nodoka reminded her husband.

Genma did remember all too well. It had been shortly after Nodoka had found out she was expecting and she - despite her back then less than ideal relationship to the man - had insisted on telling her grandfather in person. The man had already been old back then, but still agile enough to punish Genma severely for some stupid remarks, which had been made more easy by the fact he didn't dare to fight back, fearing to displease his wife. And while Isamu Nakamura was now almost 80 years old, Genma had no wish to cross him.

"I do remember. I hope he doesn't have this cane of his with him. I think I can still feel where he hit me over the head with it," Genma winced.

"That was you own fault. You also should not have mentioned your former master. He reacts very badly to mention of this person," Nodoka reminded him.

"Who wants to be reminded of him...?" Genma muttered, barely holding back a scowl.

Both teenagers had followed this exchange without any comment. Both of them had been convinced to actually go on this trip without too much effort. Ranma was curious what kind of man his great-grandfather was and Ami couldn't help but want to be there to give him support. Ami had had an easy time to convince her parents that she could go on this trip. Not only was there adult supervision - meaning she and Ranma could not do what her parents suspected they could - it also gave her parents a whole day for themselves, since it fell on Saeko's free day.

At last, the taxi reached a modest house.

Ranma had not known what to expect from his great-grandfather. He knew the man was old, but that was it. He had no idea if he still was healthy, or fragile like some old people he'd seen on the streets. He also had no idea if the man would be open-minded, or painfully conservative and rooted in the past like too many old people he'd met before. It made him wonder if there could be some absolute bastard of old man out there, whose only life goal was, to make everyone else miserable. Ranma knew, should he ever meet that person, there would be bloodshed.

Ami meanwhile hoped that it would not be as bad as she feared. Rnama's great-grandfather surely didn't want to see her in order to inspect her like cattle if she was fit for marriage. She knew that most of it was irrational fear, and that an arranged marriage or even pressure would be shot down in the courts pretty quickly; yet it didn't stop these fears. She did like Ranma, but both of them were not ready for that kind of relationship.

When the door opened, Ranma learned several things.

First, while the man was old, he was still radiating an aura of danger, although Ranma's schooled eye clearly saw as well that the years had indeed forced him to retire. The cane might have been a hint as well. Also, when Nodoka tried the traditional greeting of your elders, the old man outright scolded her that he'd told her often enough to not do that since it made him feel old. That alone already gave him a big sympathy bonus in Ranma's mind. Ranma added bonus points when seeing how one look from him made Genma sweat in discomfort.

As it came, they didn't speak until they were all inside, sitting in the family room while Isamu Nakamura was busy with preparing tea the traditional way. "Nodoka, dear. This is not a tea ceremony. I just like the taste better when it is made fresh instead of using tea bags. So please stop acting as if you've made a blunder."

"How did you know? I've not said a word," she wondered.

"Oh, the fact you looked uncomfortable was clue enough. I also know that you can't escape your upbringing, even after all these years. I don't think I can ever forgive your parents for messing you up like this," he told her, while pouring the hot tea into their cups.

_Man, he's nothing like I imagined him to be. He's not messing around, _Ranma thought. He couldn't help but to like the man just for this already. The man was the opposite of many old people he'd met before.

"Your mother wrote a lot to me about you, young man. I'm glad to finally meet you again after so many years," Isamu then finally said to Ranma.

"That's nice... What exactly did she tell you about me?" Ranma carefully said.

"Oh, she wrote me about your aspirations, your strength and skill and how you never give up." He then sent a dark look to Genma, making the man gulp hard. "I also learned of your hardships while on the road and I'm still amazed that you came out of this without permanent physical or psychological damage."

Intrigued, Ranma asked further "You seem to know a lot about fighting."

"Oh, I have lived a very interesting life and have been very active in many fights, although as you can see, I was forced to finally retire from it due to health problems. However, let me give you one piece of advice: fighting on itself won't pay the bills. Either find a way to get a regular income from it, or learn a job that supports you. I hear you have already made that decision?"

"Oh yes, I plan to become a martial arts sensei... My dream, which would've been dead had I not been told that I need a degree to become one," Ranma said, remembering his shock when learning he could forget his dream without a good education.

"Yes, it's no longer the same as in the old times. Things have changed a lot..." Isamu seemed a bit nostalgic, before looking to Ami. "From what I heard, you captured the heart of young Ranma here. Can I ask how this came to pass?... Oh, and please don't think I'm judging if you could make a proper wife. My late wife would have slapped me left and right for the mere idea."

Ami right then felt a huge burden being lifted off her. With the pressure gone, she finally broke her silence. "Oh... well. I honestly don't know. We started off as friends and went beyond it. We just grew onto each other and he helped me out of some tight situations several times." _I can't tell him our relationship was forged in battle._

"Really...? Nodoka, dear, you kept a lot from me concerning these two," he mock-accused Ranma's mother.

"I wanted to give both of them some privacy..." she lamely tried to explain.

"I would be really delighted to hear what all of you had been up to since Ranma's return home," Isamu finally said, while pouring himself another tea.

And so all of them tried to give Isamu a heavily edited story, trying to leave out everything concerning Ranma's curse - since Nodoka felt she shouldn't burden her grandfather with this - or the Senshi - since after all they could hardly tell him. It was very difficult for them and editing the truth on the fly caused numerous small errors to slip in. They just hoped Isamu would buy it.

They had no idea that was doing this just for fun.

He knew it was mean, but he couldn't help himself and tried to see how badly they'd try to lie. He of course already knew of Ranma's curse and of his battles at the side of the Senshi. He knew even more now when having used his sight on Ami. Granted, it was just an educated guess, nothing more, but it did fit the puzzle perfectly together with all the things Hino-san had told him. Aside from that, he of course also got to hear more true things about Ranma's life and the girl that was with him. It gave him a good idea of both of them.

He finally decided to release them from trying to bend the truth after over half an hour by 'accidently' knocking over his cup of by now cold tea, which hit Ranma, with predictable results. His guests froze when that happened, but Isamu used the moment to give Ranma an interested look. "I actually wondered what you would look like in that form. The same red hair your mother had had in her youth, before it darkened."

"You... you knew?" Nodoka stammered, too confused to bother with maintaining etiquette.

Isamu couldn't help but to give off a guilty laugh. "Oh yes, for quite some time now. I knew you would be reluctant to tell me certain things and I apologise that I didn't tell you right away, but I couldn't resist trying to see how you'd try to bend the truth. Nodoka, you are a very bad liar and the same goes to your son. Both of you are too honest for your own good. Now, Genma I expected to be an expert at this and I was not disappointed."

"It's nothing that I'm proud of! After being with the master for several years, it became a survival trait," Genma tried to defend himself.

"That's why I don't take offense. And concerning this menace, I really hope he is dead, otherwise I could be tempted to come out of retirement and kill him personally," Isamu reminded Genma, then looked to Ranma. "I take it you are not very happy with this curse?"

"No, not at all," Ranma said, while eying the still warm tea water. "At first I outright hated it and I was scared I could turn into some prissy princess. I'm much better now and don't mind it any longer; after all it's now part of me. Doesn't mean however, that I'm happy about it."

"I didn't expect you to be." Having mercy, he gave Ranma the pot so that she could change back, while turning to Ami. "However, you are also a very bad liar, young lady. Why didn't you tell me that you and my great-grandson were fighting together?"

"I didn't want to, but I couldn't reveal that I'm..." Only then Ami realised that she'd let out more than she'd intended to. "I... eh..."

"Oh, at first it just was an educated guess, but after meeting you, it became clearer and your faux-pas proves it."

"Ok, timeout! What's going on and how do you know all these things?" Ranma finally wanted to know.

"Yes, you are right, I do owe you an explanation. Please follow me..." Isamu told them, while getting up.

It was a very confusing situation, so they followed him without comment to a locked door. Nodoka did recognise it. "This door was always locked when I was here."

"That's because it houses something very dear to me." her grandfather answered, while unlocking the door.

Behind the door they saw something that was breathtaking. It was a big stone altar, far bigger than any family shrine they'd seen before and made with such precision and detail that it was breathtaking. It reminded them of pictures of altars in European churches they'd seen. Its most striking feature was a big picture of a warrior battling a demon on the middle part. Unlit candles were put on rows on each of the side wings of the altar and the whole room looked like a cross between a prayer room and a weapon chamber, since the walls were filled with numerous weapons of all kind. There even were things they did not recognise. The room was windowless and without the lamps, it would have been dark.

"I would not show you this, had I not been sure about it. The explanation will be more lengthy. However, I do believe that you will believe me, especially seeing that you have come into contact with magic already," he explained, ignoring Ranma's grumbling that this hadn't been his choice.

"I think it won't any longer sound unbelievable to you, that there do exist things that defy the natural order, in the likes of demons, undead and dark powers. After all you do already have met your share of them in your battles." He seemed to enjoy that everyone again was being surprised at him knowing these things. "What you don't know however is, that there are clans that are chosen to fight against these powers of darkness. Don't ask me what exactly these powers of the light are that chose people, but the fact is that they do exist."

"Does this mean you are one of these people?" Ami said in wonder, finally connecting the dots. "Are you someone who actually hunts down these things?"

"You are very sharp and you obviously don't disbelieve me, which further proves my observation. Now... you are right, my clan has been doing this for many centuries already. We fight back against dark forces that are not of this world. We are Shadow Hunters," Isamu explained.

That name reminded Ranma of something. "Hey, wait a moment! I now remember when I was at the mercy of one monster, it said that my soul smells and called me a Shadow Hunter."

"That happened after the demon left your body, right? Yes, they can do that when close enough. We are mortal enemies, since after all, we do destroy dark creatures." He let out a sigh. "At least we did, until everything went wrong. Nodoka, dear, can you remember how many relatives from my side of the family or related to me there are?"

Nodoka looked troubled when she tried to remember, coming up with a rather bleak result. "Besides you, just my father, Ranma, and myself."

"And this already highlights the problem. During World War II, my clan was practically wiped out, dying either during battle or when cities got bombed. My wife, my son and myself literally were the last ones after the war was over... and as if this was not enough, my beloved wife was taken from me far too early... a stupid traffic accident. Then, as if to spit into my face, my only child, your father Nodoka, declared that I'm outright insane when I revealed the legacy to him and cut me out of his life."

Nodoka shook her head. "He almost never talked about you. I think he just wants to forget that you even exist."

"I think he hates me and I think your whole upbringing was just a huge way to spite me. They didn't even care about you, just wanted to cause me even more pain by making you so disconnected from reality that it was painful to watch. It outright destroyed the possibility that you could continue the legacy and when you finally came to your senses, it already was too late as the thread has been cut. It left only one person still eligble to take on the legacy..."

"Let me guess: me?" Ranma mock-asked.

"Exactly, although I got devastated when all of a sudden your connection to the legacy got lost. I now know that's due to cat-demon taking residence inside your body!" Isamu gave Genma a very harsh look which made the other man take several steps back.

"I wasn't in my right mind when I did that!" Genma tried to defend himself.

"And that's the only thing that stops me from running a sword through you... Fast forward to several weeks ago when I prayed at this very shrine and felt your connection return. I felt hope... I needed to learn more about you to see if you could be trusted with this responsibility, so I activated my contacts to get more information. My most important and trusted contact is priest Hino. He told me of your... condition, of your hardships, your character and your battles at the side of the Senshi. He also told me how you already fight the forces of darkness but was bound by oath to leave out certain parts. He also told me of the young lady that is with us right at the moment and how you two are smitten with each other."

"Rei's grandfather told you all these things?" Ami wondered, while realizing, that the old man had kept his oath to keep silent about the identity of the Senshi. "Ehm, wait a moment..."

Isamu actually laughed. "As I said, it was an educated guess at first, after I put all of the information together. When I used one of my most difficult to master skills I saw that you were giving off a faint magical aura, something that only few people do. That on its own means nothing, but your reaction finally told me I'm right. You are one of the Senshi."

Ami no longer saw any reason to deny it. "You are good and it it true... Please promise to keep this to yourself! I really don't want to imagine what happens if this gets out."

"I promise to keep it quiet. In my profession, silence is everything. Please don't think I just called all of you here for this, I really want to learn what kind of man my great-grandson is and I have to say you surpassed every of my expectations. However, you hopefully understand why I press the issue."

"Why have you never told me any of this? I still have trouble to come to terms with the fact that you have hunted demons in your past," Nodoka weakly said, the implications hitting her now. Having seen a real demon in person, it made her realize her grandfather deserved heaps of respect for his courage.

Isamu again shook his head. "Nodoka, dear. Remember that we only got on good terms when you got better? That was after your son was lost to you and you felt incredibly guilty about it. I did not want to put guilt over missing your legacy on top of it."

Nodoka looked pained when being reminded of that difficult time and she knew that Isamu was right. Back then the guilt had nearly broken her, so he'd done well on keeping this from her. However, the reveal also created a big question. "I know now that I can't connect to the legacy... But if my son accepts, can't I still help him?"

The warm smile that Isamu gave her was almost overwhelming. "You've come so far... Years ago you would have killed your own son in your delusions... And now you want to help him despite never been able to touch the power of the Shadow Hunter yourself. Your selflessness would have made you a great Shadow Hunter... Of course your help would be good for him, since as you see, I don't get younger..."

"I will do it."

There was a moment a silence following what Ranma had said, before Isamu gathered himself. "I'm sorry? You say this right away? No time to consider?"

"Honestly, how that be different from what I'm already doing? Ami, you tell them," Ranma explained, looking to his girlfriend.

"Ranma is actively fighting monsters at our side, trying to prevent them from taking over the world. He does not hold back and is working hard on becoming stronger to be more effective. That actually matches what you do so much that accepting would be just a formality. Of course, accepting would give Ranma certain advantages in battle, does it?" Ami explained.

"I can see why he's smitten by you..." Isamu then collected himself. "Well, of course. However, the gifts of the Shadow Hunter are defensive in nature. Do not expect the sudden power to throw around magic or sudden super-strength. Real magic users are rare and suddenly becoming one only happens in comics..."

"...or being the next life of some girl that died 10.000 years ago," Ami added. "I guess you mean magic users are born, not made."

"Exactly. You were born with these powers, so you can control them. As for the powers of the Shadow Hunter... they are, as I said, defensive in nature and are from a divine source. Trust me, you'll need these, as they protect from some nasty stuff and I can feel that some of the protections have already awakened."

"Hey, wait a moment! Does this also mean protection from loss of life-energy? Something protected me some days ago, stumping the others," Ranma then realised, hoping that this could finally answer this enigma.

"It is one of the protection powers and it seems it activated when you were in danger...interesting," Isamu observed, wondering what this could mean. "As for the other powers, it mainly is protection of the mind and from magic directly affecting your body - although it's too late to do anything about your curse, sorry."

Ranma rolled his eyes. Somehow, he knew this would come. "Man, that sucks... What use these powers then?"

"Don't underestimate them! How would you like your mind being wiped? What about telepathic domination forcing you to commit suicide? If that's not enough, do you want your bones turned to water?" he saw that he'd gotten his point across when Ranma fell silent, gulping hard. "See, there are ways to kill you against which you can't defend yourself regardless how good of a fighter you are, this is where the granted powers come into play. Are you still going to go through with it?"

"Yes!" Ranma said, not hesitating for a second.

"Good..."

Some time later, the room was bathed in the soft light of the now burning candles, the rest hidden by darkness. A soft mat was placed in front of the altar and Ranma had changed into something that looked like a normal, black kimono for men. Interestingly enough, Ami was wearing a women's kimono, green with a flower motif. Both of them didn't look too comfortable in this borrowed formal wear.

"I understand Ranma wearing this, but why me?" Ami asked again, feeling unwell and wondering how Nodoka could wear this every day and looking so graceful in it.

"When a new Shadow Hunter is brought before the representative of the divine powers to be initiated and they already have a boy or girl in their lives, it is custom for them to go through this together. If you meet your certain someone afterwards, it's custom to present them to the representative to get its blessing for the union. It's more of a formality you have to fulfill. After hearing how close you two are, I felt I have to invite you along for this reason as well," Isamu explained, while putting the last candle into place.

"So, what do we do now?" Ranma wondered, having no clue how to proceed.

"Both of you just sit in front of to altar. The rest happens on its own," he instructed them.

Both teenagers did as told and at first they wondered what they were supposed to do. They did not notice becoming stock-still, nor did they notice that they had started staring without focus. Everything before their eyes faded into darkness, when awareness left them.

"Now we can only wait..." Isamu said when seeing how both teenagers had fallen into trance, their eyes showing no awareness. He then noticed a faintly glowing blue sigil on Ami's forehead. "That didn't happen before, although I can harbour a guess why it is glowing."

o

Blinking, Ranma tried to get his bearings. Everything seemed to spin in his head and before he knew it, he'd went down to his hands and knees in order to not fall over. He felt like stomach was very eager to evacuate its contents, but thankfully, nothing happened after he clamped down hard onto the urge. It seemed to take several minutes for his head to clear. He still felt a bit wobbly but managed to slowly get up and look around. Not that there was much to see in the first place.

The place was pretty barren and unreal. Just an unnaturally smooth, black floor that seemed to to go to the horizon and a clear, blue sky. Nothing to write home about. Ranma was no fool and assumed right away that considering he'd been kneeling in front of the altar moments ago that this wasn't real and just in his head. Still, it felt quite real. However, he was so occupied with trying to get what was going on that he didn't notice something more important, until...

"Eeeeek!"

That was Ami! Ranma spun around... and stopped in his tracks when he saw Ami... all of Ami.

Granted, he'd seen this before, but only for mere seconds. This time, he got the whole frontal view without a time limit. And man, was that a view. Ami was a very natural-looking girl. Everything on her body was in complete harmony with each other and it was how modestly she was shaped which made her look attractive to Ranma. Her breasts were a nice handful, topped with cute, brown areolas, her pubic hair was well cared for, her body showed no baby fat as it got removed through constant, recent exercise. All of it was crowed by a cute face with a currently faintly glowing sigl of Mercury on her forehead. His dreams really didn't do her justice; she looked even better than in his imagination.

However, he had little time to enjoy the view when he finally became aware of a very important fact: he was buck-naked as well. Naked, in front of a naked Ami.

Ami for her part had went through the same experience as Ranma, having felt sick as well and had almost vomited - she had barely managed to swallow it back down before the dam could burst and still felt the sensation from the acid in her throat. She had then turned around and had been greeted with the sight of Ranma's naked butt, causing her to let out a squeal of mortification... big error, since it caused Ranma to turn around, giving her an unobscured full frontal. Ami was speechless... while she had already seen his muscles, which made him look graceful instead of overloaded like a bodybuilder, he this time was completely bare, not even boxers obscuring her view.

She couldn't help but to notice that the meaning of Ranma's name - "wild horse" - was very fitting indeed, considering how well equipped he was. It was quite big and wasn't even erect yet. It took her some moments before she realised what she was actually doing.

Both of them looked at each other in silence for some more moments, before both of them blushed from head to toe. Ranma covered his crotch with his hands and used all of his control to calm down when feeling part of his anatomy react to the sight of Ami., who meanwhile wasted no time to apply the classical pose of the embarrassed nude female, covering her crotch and breasts with arms and hands, feeling her body betraying her at the sight of Ranma in the nude.

"Why does this happen to us?" Ranma openly complained.

Ami was trying hard to keep her composure - something she only partially succeeded in. "I've seen a number of anime where people are naked when having some sort of vision or are in some sort of higher plane of reality, but this is taking it too far! This is humiliating!"

Ranma knew who she felt; he himself felt as if someone was playing a cruel joke on them. "I wonder if he knew? Sending us here like this! What was he thinking?"

"Why?" Ami's trembling was a good indicator that she felt like screaming. "What's the use of doing this to us?"

**"Always the same... They are always mortified when coming here... It never gets old."**

The loud, rumbling and yet amused voice stopped them in their tracks. Slowly turning around, they were greeted with a sight that normally would have instilled fear into everyone. It was a dragon... or at least looked like one, shaped like a Westerner would imagine a dragon. It was as big as an elephant, had dark green scales and two big, leathery wings. However, the very intimidating look was ruined by the fact that the dragon did look quite amused, however that was possible with his facial features (the voice was clearly male).

Ranma got over his surprise fairly fast. "Hey! What's the idea behind this? Do you have any idea how embarrassing this this?"

**"Oh, I do know about human modesty. However, in this place, entering with the mind means appearing as bare as you are right now. Please don't ask for the why, since I have no idea. I've seen so many in the same situation already that I wish I could change it to make things easier for everyone involved, myself included. Alas, it's not to be."** The Dragon then saw their looks. **"Just because I'm old doesn't mean I'm stupid. Also, I got I a good idea of you two when you entered this plane**."

Having regained her courage - and seeing that this dragon didn't seem to be dangerous - Ami addressed him. "All right, I'll accept you can't change this... So who are you? And you don't exactly act as I had expected."

The dragon looked interested at her, paying extra attention to her forehead and the faint blue glow of her sigl. **"You know, it is long ago since I last met one of you Senshi. The Moon is about to leave the eclipse... Sorry, was just my curiosity. I don't have a name, don't even look like this in reality. You don't want to know what I really look like... You perhaps thought I would act all mysterious and aloof?"**

"Something like that, yes," Ami confirmed.

**"I don't do this any longer. It alienated possible candidates, so I decided to just be myself, which is quite nice."** He then turned serious and looked to Ranma. **"However, let's come to business. Let me take a good look at you."**

Ranma felt uncomfortable with the dragon looking at him as if exploring his deepest secrets. However, there was no place to hide and his hands were already occupied with preserving his last shred of modesty. "Do you have to stare?" he finally complained.

**"Why so sensitive? Your body has nothing to be ashamed of."** The dragon seemed to enjoy mortifying people. **"And all done... Very interesting. A fighter at heart. Rough around the edges and yet wouldn't hesitate to take arms for the just cause. You certainly do fulfill the criteria. Yet there are some... issues."**

Ranma's face fell. "Of course, give me a good guess... A certain curse presents a problem?"

**"Not for the reason you believe. First however, dear Isamu did tell you everything that the call does entail? I have to know first,"** the dragon explained.

"Oh, he did. It's basically what I'm already doing, just with some nifty protection thrown in," Ranma said, getting right to the point.

**"It mostly is, but you also have to understand that it's a lifetime job which could be an issue at times. Therefore, are you still willing do do it, despite this?" **the dragon asked.

"Hell, yes! I couldn't live with myself if I could do something and yet just let the monsters go rampant."

**"Very good... It's far easier than anticipated. That leaves the literal elephant in the room..."**

They knew what he meant, but then got surprised when someone stepped out from behind him and walked up to them. Ranma had to blush when seeing it was a young Chinese woman, who also was completely nude. He tried very hard to concentrate on her face since she made no effort to cover up at all. It was not helped by the fact that Ami was watching him very closely while sending the occasional look of annoyance to the other female.

"All right, who are you supposed to be?" Ami asked, not even bothering to hide the acid in her voice. She felt threatened by this woman parading around naked in front of Ranma.

The woman held up her hands in a peace gestue. "Hey no need to be hostile! He's your man and I would never try anything! I just no longer have any embarrassment about nudity. As for who I am... my name is no longer important, but I'm the girl that originally drowned in that spring."

"You don't look anything like my girl-form," Ranma finally said, looking skeptical.

The woman rolled her eyes. "I guess you haven't listened when they explained the springs to you or you forgot. The spring just uses what you would have looked like if born a girl. Just replace an Y with and X chromosome, some small changes in the rest of the code and voilá, instant girl, who is Ranma Saotome in her own right. So you still look like yourself and not like me, which I think you should be grateful for."

"That still doesn't explain your presence or why you don't act like someone from ancient China." Although Ami no longer felt threatened, she still was careful. "I'm also still not happy that you parade around naked in front of my boyfriend."

The woman now looked rather annoyed. "Look, I've already been dead for centuries, I'm just a spirit, so there's no risk of me trying to seduce your boyfriend. Also, can you even imagine me still acting like I did during my lifetimes after all these centuries in that stupid spring and seeing the tragedy of countless men? That's what caused me to become cynical and have the tact of a blunt axe."

**"My dear, maybe you should finally come to the point. This is why I summoned you,"** the dragon gently told the woman.

"All right. As I mentioned, I was stuck in that spring and the only way my soul could be freed and reborn to a new life would be, if one that got cursed in the spring learns to accept and live with the curse." She sighed. "The springs have a very bad track record. Of the cursed people, almost two thirds, men and women alike, commit suicide shortly after their cursing. The rest barely tolerates their curses or just live a miserable life. There are only very few exceptions. And as if that's not enough, the Musk make it even worse for me..."

"Who are the Musk?" Ami asked, curious.

"They are jerks, that's what they are!" the woman shouted, before regaining her composure. "Sorry, it's just that the nobility and warrior caste of this tribe have that really perverse tradition to put animals into the spring to turn them into human women, then lock them into that state with magic and use them as fuck toys and child-bearing machines."

Ranma and Ami went green when hearing this blunt description of what the spring was used for. "That's... that's SICK!" Ranma then shouted in uttermost disgust.

Judging by the look of disgust, the woman thought so as well. "You don't have to tell me, no wonder they are as screwed up as they are. You can guess it was difficult for me to get out of this mess... at least until you came along. Don't get me wrong, I'm sorry you got cursed, but you are the first who took it well, also thanks to your girlfriend."

"I not exactly took it well at first. I'm only starting to learn to live with it," Ranma admitted, remembering his recent breakdown.

"I know and I won't expect you to love it, but you are starting to make your peace with it, and this is what counts for me." The woman then looked to Ami. "I can't thank you enough for how much you helped him through that hard time when he was about to break under the weight of the curse."

"Every decent person would have done this..." Ami tried to play down her part.

"No, you do deserve the recognition. I just need one final confirmation..." She looked to Ranma. "You do no longer mind your curse, right?"

Ranma let out a sigh. "I'll probably never like it, but I no longer resent it. I guess I'm starting to get along with it. Of course it helped that I now know I won't turn into some sort of prissy princess or look after guys. I actually do no longer mind... Life goes on and I guess it's now part of me."

The woman started to smile and a tear escaped her. "Oh, thank you... I can already feel myself getting out of the spring." She did start to fade away. "Thank you so much... I'm finally free to go on after such a long time... I'll be in your debt forever... Ranma Saotome."

Then she was gone.

**"You have done the right thing, she now is on her way to be reborn, even though that infernal spring does still exist,"** the dragon congratulated Ranma. **"You have earned the title of Shadow Hunter."**

"Uhm, won't there be some sort of knighting thing when I get my powers?" Ranma wondered, still a bit out of it after witnessing the spirit disappear.

**"Sadly, no. You'll just get them once you get out of this place, although I think your great-grandfather is more than willing to call for a celebration. There however is one final thing I want to address, and that concerns you, young lady, and why you are here,"** the dragon continued, looking to Ami.

"Isamu said that it's to get your blessing for being together with Ranma... although I imagine that there is more to it than he told us, right?" Ami asked, having the feeling that they'd been set up.

The dragon chuckled. **"Well, he hasn't exactly lied, he just left out a few things. You see, when the pair is before me, it usually is to give my blessing to either a wedded pair or one that will be in due time."**

"And I thought he wouldn't do this!" Ami protested, only to be silenced when the dragon lifted a paw.

**"However, I don't think he did this because of that. He most likely just saw how much you like each other and wants to help you on that way. After all, my blessing results in a bond between the pair."**

"Bond? You mean stuff like that we can talk to each other with our minds or always know where the other is?" Ranma wondered, remembering something he'd seen on TV.

Now the dragon laughed. **"Oh no, nothing that drastically. It mostly is just a bond of trust and you will feel warm and safe in each other's company. See, nothing dramatic, such things after all only happen in fiction. Both of you won't feel any different apart from what I told you. Although, there is one nifty bonus in form of dream sharing..." **The dragon looked at both of them and blinked. **"Oh... I... That changes things. Somehow the bond already got partially activated and you are already sharing your dreams sometimes... especially the naughty ones."**

"We do?" Ami now was concerned. Had Ranma seen one of he intense sexual dreams? "How is that possible?"

The dragon took a closer look at both of them. **"I know now... The unique combination of Ranma's transformation magic and your powers of Mercury somehow partially ignited the bond. Call it a magical short-circuit. Believe me when I say you now have to let me finish it, or it could get ugly."**

"How ugly?" Ranma had just processed the whole dream-sharing thing when that anvil got dropped onto them. He guessed that this just wasn't their day.

**"I never expected this to happen... If I don't fix this, your ability to feel emotions could get seriously crippled. Sorry that you have no choice, but in both your interest I have to open the bond, if you want or not."**

"Damn it, that's our luck! Tell us, if not for that, could we have just decided to hold that off until we are really sure about it?" Ranma now wanted to know.

**"Yes. I would have accepted just waiting until you feel ready. I also think this is what your great-grandfather had in mind. Sadly... there now is little choice, unless you want to risk permanent damage,"** the dragon told them, sounding sincerely sorry.

Both teenagers sighed loudly. They both felt that they were a bit too young for this but there was little choice in the matter now. "So, how exactly do we do this? Does that also happen automatically when we wake up?" Ami asked.

**"Not exactly..."** The dragon now did seem a bit peevish. **"While it does happen at that point, remember it's use. It requires close contact; very close contact." **He ten interpreted their looks. **"Not THAT. That's reserved for your bedroom... Let's do this slow. First face each other."**

Both did as told. It became quite a bit hardened to ignore their nudity when looking at each other. **"Now, hands to the side. No secrets from each other." **They hesitated for a moment, since after all their modesty was rebelling. Finally, their hands fell to their sides, leaving them bare to each other's sight.

**"Take a good look at each other."** At first they were hesitant, yet in the end, curiosity to take a closer look won out.

"I think I already told you... but... wow. You look really good, Ami," Ranma finally got out, while still ogling her naked form.

"You are no slouch, either. I also... oh my!" Ami watched a certain body part of Ranma expanding. "Wild Horse... You really seem to like seeing me."

"Y-you seem to be excited as well..." Ranma said, observing the slight trickle of clear fluid on the inside of her legs.

**"Now, to seal the deal, embrace each other and a kiss will do it all."**

Again, there was some hesitation and they walked forward one step at the time, until they were finally in each other's arms. It was weird. Being so close together while completely naked felt quite right. It also felt nice, although Ami felt Ranma poking her lower belly.

"Come, let's do this..." Ami breathed, feeling the temperature rising by the second.

They engaged in a passionate, deep and wild kiss. The sigl of Mercury, which had glowed faintly on Ami's forehead the entire time, suddenly flared up and both of them felt something rushing through them. It by no means was bad or hurt, quite in the contrary. Their mouths separated and they both let out a loud moan, before vanishing in a flash of light.

The dragon had watched all this with satisfaction, then suddenly shrunk down to human size into an anthromorphic version of himself. "The legacy is secured and I made another pair happy... Well, as soon as they have come to terms with these events." He then noticed someone entering. "Tell me again, Helios, how did you convince the powers that are to throw in this bond you developed into the whole deal all these centuries ago? I nearly got into deep trouble and they almost got seriously hurt by it threatening to malfunction."

Said Helios was a man with white hair and yellow eyes, wearing a white suit. His most striking feature was a unicorn's horn on his forehead. "I explained to those above us that for all the hunters have to endure with this job, these people should also get some rewards. Sharing beautiful and hot dreams seems to be a good reward to me. They thought so as well," Helios explained.

"And yet we almost regretted it," the dragon grumbled.

"How should I have known he would fall in love with a Senshi of all people? Though, haven't seen any of these in a long time. Too bad that I have to stay neutral in the struggles still to come until the heir is ready to claim the crystal," Helios replied.

"Can you at least make sure this doesn't happen again? I feel really bad for scaring them with these news."

Helios scratched his chin. "If I tweak it here and there... Well, want to come to Elysion? I sure could use some company when making sure this won't happen again."

o

Ranma and Ami shook their heads, trying to get their vision to focus again. When it did, they saw that they were back in front of the altar and - thankfully - dressed. The candles had not become visibly shorter, so it couldn't have been that long. Slowly getting up, they saw all three adults watching them, wondering if they were alright.

Ranma gave Isamu a nasty look. "Thanks that you kept some certain details from us!" he told him in a very sarcastic tone that left no doubt about his feelings.

The old man had the dignity to look guilty. "I really thought I did the right thing! It eh... all worked out in the end, right?"

"It did, in the end, but you really could have warned us in advance," Ranma grumbled, still not happy with the whole thing.

"Did something happen we should know?" Nodoka wondered when listening to this exchange.

Ami shook her head. "No. This is a very private matter. So as much as I dislike saying so, but we won't tell you, unless we decide to; something we probably never will. Unless we do, it is none of your concern."

Nodoka and Genma looked at each other. If the polite Ami was this direct, it had to be a really private matter.

Some time later, things had come back to order.

Isamu was busy with checking something on the underside of Ranma's right, lower arm. It looked like a small tatoo of a sword. The old man was pleased when seeing it. "It is there. That means everything went well and you are officially initiated."

"I had hoped Ranma would never get a tatoo. Well, at least it's not that obvious," Genma stated, then noticed the looks. "What? You know tatoos are mainly associated with Yakuza. It's small enough that Ranma won't get trouble in the public baths."

Ranma didn't even want to imagine accidently getting confused with a Yakuza. "Let's hope it stays this way..."

"I think after all the excitement, all of us could use something really filling. However, I first want to show something..." Isamu went back into the shrine room and returned with to items in his hands. "It's an enigma on which I am working all of my life."

He put both items on the table. The first was a book with the tile "Of the Great Kingdom" printed on it. The second was a round stone disc the size of a dinner plate and almost as thick as the book. The disc had several sun phases - dawn, mid-day, sunset and night - engraved onto the outer ring. The depression taking up most of the surface meant that another, smaller disc was supposed to be put onto it and the hole in the middle meant they were to be put onto an axis.

"There is quite a story connected with this disc..." Isamu began.

* * *

_...flashback, 1926..._

_**-slap!- **__Ten-year old Isamu held back a cry when a hard slap sent him to the floor. Cruel laughter surrounded him while he held the left side of his face and watched an obese, blue-skinned demon wearing a white suit and fedora approach him, holding the stone disc in his hand._

_"You little brat really thought you could take away what's mine?" he mocked Isamu._

_"It's not yours! You killed the man who dug it out and stole it! You are a murderer and a thief!" Isamu spat back, disregarding his own safety._

_"Brave words. Many grown men were less brave in my presence," the demon admitted, before kicking Isamu into the side, sending him back to the floor._

_"Oh, come on, Duruganov! Let me slice this brat into nice bacon strips," one of the demon's three helpers giggled. She was looking like a dominatrix in her leather outfit... with huge bat-wings on her back, horns out of her shoulders and a devil's tail._

_"Control yourself! Killing this brat will give us only more trouble," Duruganov warned her off._

_"Why, boss?" another henchman demon wearing a gangster outfit and looking disgusting with his green, wart-filled skin asked._

_"He's a Shadow Hunter brat. Kill him, and we have the entire clan on our heels, swearing revenge. Just leave him here and they'll never bother. Now come..." Duruganov called, turning around to leave._

_They left, with exception of the last henchman demon. He walked to Isamu and helped the whispering boy to his feet._

_"Why are you helping me? I thought all demons are evil" Isamu wondered. The demon didn't look like he could be mean. He just looked like an anthromorphic goat wearing a sailor suit._

_The goat-being sighed. "I'm not a demon kid. I'm just a nature spirit. We are pacifists and I would love nothing more than return to my home dimension to my wife and children... "_

_"Why don't you leave? Duruganov is a complete jerk," Isamu wondered._

_"He's tricked me into a contract and as long as he's alive, I'm bound to his whims." He then turned around. "I need to go. You lost today, kid, but I'm sure we'll meet again. I can see in your eyes that you are not one to give up."_

_That said, the goat left behind a thoughtful Isamu._

_...Tokyo Bay, 1938..._

_**-smack!- **__Isamu didn't say anything while the demon's fist hit him into the face. Being held in place by this succubus-demon's tentacles - which grew out of a place better left unsaid - was already bad enough, so he didn't really notice the hits any longer. The goat-spirit was standing a little away, looking pained each time the man was hurt._

_It was a clear night and they were all on a ship in the middle of Tokyo Bay. The ship itself was a rather old one, a wonder it had not yet sunk into the sea. His long search had finally led him here and he had indeed found what he'd searched for, only to get ambushed by these two._

_"Small world, isn't it, Shadow Hunter?" Duruganov then said, while approaching._

_"Too small for both of us!" Isamu growled._

_Duruganov opened Isamu's bag, pulling something out. It was the stone disc. "That's the second time I have to reclaim what's mine from you."_

_"And I repeat, you're a thief and murderer!" Isamu spat._

_"You should not have come after me. You'll now regret it," Duruganov laughed._

_Suddenly, Isamu smiled. "Oh, there is just one thing you forgot."_

_The sudden change of mood disturbed Duruganov. "And what could this be?"_

_"I'm no longer a harmless child."_

_Without warning, Isamu suddenly threw up his legs and a blade shot out of his boot, slamming in Duruganov's throat. Black blood shot out of his slashed throat and he fell backwards, while Isamu grabbed another blade out a wrist-holster and slammed it backwards directly into the succubus' left eye. The screaming demoness let go of him._

_"Bastard!" the third demon cursed and was about to cast a horrible spell, before three throwing stars slammed into his gut, making him keel over. Right before a blade slammed into his neck, cutting off his head._

_"Arrrggghh!" the demoness screamed, looking even more angry with heft left eye cut out. That was to little avail, as Isamu dodged her attack, before slamming his blade directly into the place between her legs, knowing that a succubus was must vulnerable there. She slammed to the deck, pathetically gasping for breath, while dying._

_Isamu looked at his dead foes, before walking to the also dying Duruganov, taking the stone disc from the deck. "You thought you are big shots... Correction: for demons, you are weak wannabes with very little power."_

_Duruganov looked shocked, before dying, his body dissolving into goo._

_Isamu then looked to the goat-spirit who had done nothing during all this. "You were right, we met again. Now that he's history, I think you want to return home?"_

_The spirit gave Isamu a smile._

_..._

"...and then he returned home and I finally got this here back," Isamu concluded his tale, holding up the stone disc.

"Wow, what a story..." Ranma had known his great-grandfather had been doing these things in his past, but dipatching three demons, even weak ones, like this was impressive. This man deserved respect.

Ami meanwhile took a look at the disc. "Have you made any progress in finding out what disc is good for?"

"I did, but it only opened up even more enigmas in the big one," Isamu explained, giving her the book. "I marked the most important passages. Take a look at it and tell me what you think."

Ami did so, and her eyes widened the longer she read. "Would it be an inconvenience if we take both items with us? We want to try and solve this."

"Feel free to do so... After I all, I didn't manage to solve it in all these years. Time for someone else to try themselves at it..."

* * *

_...evening, Hikawa Shrine..._

Everyone had listened to Ranma and Ami telling the story of their visit to Isamu Nakamura, Ranma's new responsibilities and the story that old Isamu had told them. Needless to say, everyone was quite fascinated by the whole story - Pluto most of all, since she never had had any idea of these things and it made her wonder if that was another change she had caused with her escape. One way or another, this suddenly opened possibilities she hadn't thought possible.

Of course, Ranma and Ami had worked hard on leaving out certain details. The fact that they'd been buck-naked during that spiritual experience would stay a secret and the whole deal with them being bonded even more. They had no wish for anyone to make a big deal of it - also it was a very private matter and therefore no one's concern but theirs.

"Wow, Ranma! Does that mean you now can do magic?" Minako asked, only for Artemis to correct her.

"Haven't you listened? It doesn't give Ranma any attacks or even active magic. People are born with magic, they can't gain it. All he got are passive protection magics put onto him, like the one that protects him from energy loss. However, do not underestimate these; this is a strong defense he has gotten. It eliminates some of the most dangerous vulnerabilities, mostly psychic attacks," Artemis lectured her.

"Fine, but I'll still go through with my training. He was clear on that while it gives protection, I should be prepared for everything," Ranma added.

"You must have a masochistic streak if you can't wait to get hit by boulders," Makoto snarked, remembering what kind training Ranma was about to start.

Ranma crossed his arms. "Better a masochist than dead."

Before it could get any more out of hand, Pluto knocked with her staff onto the floor. "You mentioned a stone disc and a book."

"We have them here. The book we can read together. I have already read it... it is very interesting to say the least," Ami said, while opening her backpack, taking out the copy of Isamu's book and the stone disc. "Does this disc mean anything to you? I have my theories but need more opinions," she wondered, handing Pluto the disc.

Pluto looked at the round disc, and guessed that together with others it worked the same way as a numerical lock. The disc didn't look familiar, but she did feel something about it. "I can't say I recognise it, although I do feel the magic woven into it," she said, then noticed Mamoru approaching. "You look like you recognise it."

"Not entirely. I do know this is something from the old Earth Kingdom, but its use eludes me, even though I should know. Maybe it comes back to me in due time," he said, after looking at the disc. "It's almost as if Endymion mocks me and says I should try to remember harder."

"The more I hear of Endymion, the more it sounds like he'd been sort of a jerk. Thank goodness you don't take after him," Usagi observed, before quickly looking away when realizing what she'd said.

"Then this book will be most helpful. Rei, you read it to us, the important parts are all marked," Ami told Rei, putting the book into her hands.

The miko saw that there were only a few markings, so it probably wouldn't take too long. "All right. Then let's see what this is about..."

...

_**OF THE GREAT KINGDOM**_

_Finally I have managed to translate all fragments and put them into the right order to reconstruct the document. Most of the original, apart from the final part, got lost, so that I had to reconstruct the text from sources which describe it in length, meaning that for the most part, it has the view of an outsider on the events chronicled. Now I wonder... will I ever manage to solve the puzzle presented to myself? Perhaps not. I still lack crucial information even where to start the quest in the first place. I am printing it all into book form for later, easy reference._

_**-Isamu Nakamura, Tokyo, 1980**_

...

"A puzzle? A quest? Are we meant to do that?" Usagi interrupted Rei, before a strong look from the miko silenced her.

"Interupt me like this again and you gonna get it!" she said heatedly, before continuing to read.

...

_**Of the Kingdom and its Values**_

_The kingdom of old had encompassed all of the known lands under its banner during the days of its glory, which are said to have been 6000 years in our past. The kingdom of old had been a very powerful one, indeed. And yet, despite their great power, they ruled their lands wise and just, ensuring that the ones less fortunate would not suffer and that the ones who had in abundance would not misuse their power._

_Its capital was located on a far-away island of such beauty, that the whole world spoke of it. Much of the old kingdom sounds strange to our ears. It was said that the people didn't need horses, as they had harnessed the power of ligtning, using it to animate constructs, which then did the work for them like magic._

...

Since that part was all that was marked on that page, Rei looked up. "This book seems to be about the old Earth Kingdom." She looked to Mamoru. "I get the feeling that this could be really important for you."

Hearing that, Mamoru now was even more interested. "Maybe this book finally tells us what this stone disc is good for. I only know it must be important."

"Trust me, it is. The important part about that comes a little later," Ami assured him.

Rei returned her attention to the next part.

...

_The foundation of the kingdom was set into a set of virtues, basic human values, which in turn were derived from three basic principles. The principles were as follows:_

_Truth - The principle of Truth has its foundations in seeing the true nature of the world surrounding us and defying any kind of illusion, may it be from the outside or from ourselves, that clouds the mind and judgment._

_Love - The principle of Love is necessary for all humans to interact in a civilised manner with each other. Love gives people the respect for each other they need and makes everyone aware of the needs of others and oneself._

_Courage - The principle of Courage is most important to survive in a hostile environment and to do the task, even if it is difficult. It gives the strength needed to prevail through all kind of hardships._

_From there, eight virtues form the core of society:_

_Honesty - Honesty, founded on the principle of Truth, is scrupulous respect for truth- the willingness never to deceive oneself or another. The pursuit of truthfulness, with respect to oneself and with respect to other beings._

_Compassion - Compassion, founded on the principle of Love, is non-judgmental empathy for one's fellow creatures. The quality of empathy, of recognizing and sharing the feelings of others._

_Valor - Valor, founded on the principle of Courage, is the courage to take actions in support of one's convictions. The courage to uphold virtue, even in the face of a physical or psychological threat._

_Justice - Justice, founded on the principles of Truth and Love, is the devotion to truth, tempered by love. It is the wisdom that perceives what is right and what is wrong in human action._

_Sacrifice - Sacrifice, founded on the principles of Courage and Love, is the courage to give of oneself in the name of love. It is the placing of the interests of others and the ends of virtue over one's own well-being._

_Honor - Honor, founded on the principles of Courage and Truth, is the courage to stand for the truth, against any odds. It is the courage to stand for truth regardless of the circumstances._

_Spirituality - Spirituality, founded on all three principles in equal parts, is the concern with one's inner being and how one deals with truth, love, and courage. It is also the awareness of the love that unites one's own inner being to those around one._

_Humility - Humility is the opposite of Pride, and independent of the principles of Virtue, is about perceiving one's place in the world, not according to one's own accomplishments, but according to the intrinsic value of all individuals. It is the recognition of the worthiness of all beings, and the perception of one's own place among them, regardless of one's own personal accomplishments or mistakes in the world._

_Only few would manage to put all the virtues and principles into full use. The highest standard that would result is, that someone would reach Infinity, since the rules of human decency survive the times and are universal to everyone._

...

"That sure was... extensive. However, it's also quite interesting. It makes you wonder which of these virtues we could represent," Naru wondered while Rei was looking for the next part.

Pluto only remembered these things now, cursing time paradoxes that were messing with her memories. "This might be an interesting question, but it can surely wait for later, until we have heard all of this."

Rei went on with the next part.

...

_**Of the Crystal and the Stone Discs**_

_The rulers of the kingdom of course also had power. All the strength and determination they got to steer the kingdom partly came from a special source. A source, which gave them a power far above what normal mortal could achive, yet the usage of it was strictly limited, as the temptation for its theft and misuse was far too great to ignore._

_Only the current king and his successor would know the exactly location of the artifact of power, for it was hidden deep beneath the surface. And again only very few actually knew it existed. There, on an altar in front of the giant mana tree, source of all magic on Earth, rested the Golden Crystal, symbol of the king's power, waiting for its rightful owners to use it in times of great need._

...

Rei looked up is disbelief. "A tree that supplies the magic of Earth? A Golden Crystal... as a source of power for Mamoru? What do you think... does it really exist? It sounds so fantastic I can hardly believe it, despite what we've already been through."

Suddenly Mamoru almost keeled over, holding his head in pain! "AHHH! No...I..." Everyone was on their guard, but Mamoru held up a hand to show he was all right. "Sorry... the memories came all of a sudden and it hurt quite a bit..."

"If there is a memory... does that mean the tree and the crystal are real?" Usagi asked in wonder, feeling as if it was some kind of very exciting story.

Mamoru poured himself some water. "I don't know everything, since Endymion died before he'd have been old enough to know all secrets. However... both are quite real, as impossible as it seems. However, we should first hear the rest of it."

Agreeing, Rei returned to the book.

...

_In order to aid keeping the mana tree and the Golden Crystal safe from those who would try to misuse its powers, three special, magical stone discs were created. The location of the sanctum was known only to the current king and to learn of it, each new ruler would have to visit three temples, which each held a third of the knowledge where to find the sanctum. The first two third would also give hints to the location of the next temple._

_It was said, that the first temple is located in the lands 1370 kilometers east of the capital. At the first temple, a Sunstone sufficed, if hot sunlight bathed the Earth. Final entrance to the inner sanctum was granted, if sunset made the Earth red._

_At the second temple a Moonstone was also needed, with the noon sun riding above the waning moon. Final entrance to the inner sanctum was granted, with the sun dying as a new moon is born._

_To approach the third temple a Worldstone was required as well, with the rising sun chasing away the full moon from from above the fiery peak. Final entrance to the inner sanctum was granted with a waxing moon reflecting in the western sea below._

_Entrance through the final barrier towards the inner sanctum of the mana tree was only allowed to contrary minds._

...

"It seems we're now getting to the really important stuff. That does sound like a code. So that means we already have the Sunstone, but need the two others if we actually want to accomplish anything... Of course only if we are planning to do anything about it in the first place," Makoto observed.

"We should decide about that after Rei is done with reading. There seems only little left," Luna said, noticing that only one marker was left.

Rei opened the page, which was at the end of the book.

...

_**Of the End of the Kingdom**_

_**Note**__: I found it especially difficult to find any sources about the end of the kingdom. The suddenness of its end must have been devastating. In the end I found out, that just a singe parchment in the original works which spoke of the final days and the aftermath, and it is here in its entirety. It was a direct transcript from the original, with no flavoring._

_..._

_"I write this in sorrow, as the world as we knew it is coming to an end. The last days of our kingdom had been beautiful... and we would have given them more attention, had we known what would follow. I myself have no idea how it happened, only that one day, a dark shadow had settled over the world and destroyed our leaders before making our army go insane. When the shadow collapsed, the insane ones remaining on the world started a senseless slaughter._

_The world is now in ruins and the fight for basic survival is driving more and more people to desperation. Even the virtues, the foundation of our society, are now violated freely. Our world is torn apart by a disregard for the very thing that made it such a beautiful place. I fear for what the future will bring and as the last one knowing these secrets, have written them all down so that hopefully future generations can return the world to its glory._

_A very dark age is ahead of us, and we don't even know how it had come this far..."_

...

Rei closed the book. "That was quite interesting, but what should we make of all this? That last part was more of an apocalyptic log than anything else."

"I think it's all clear," Ami said, having had time to come up with her own conclusions since she'd read the book earlier that day. "The book speaks of the Golden Crystal and that only the rightful heir to the Earth throne can claim it. It seems to be an artifact of great power and although Mamoru will never wield any sort of political power, he is the rightful heir to the crystal."

"Do we even have the time for this sort of treasure hunt? Especially since it seems to be all over the world? Is the crystal really that important?" Makoto asked into the room, doubtful.

Pluto has holding back a grimace while her memories got further additions, causing her a horrible headache when she leaned of these facts only now after being made aware of them. "While the Earth Kingdom was quite secretive about these things, I can say it is very powerful. After all it is the brother to the Silver Crystal and linked to similarly strong powers. Alas, I think this is a quest we should not yet start, since we currently have different priorities."

"Isn't that a bit risky? I mean, what if the Dark Kingdom gets it first?" Minako wondered.

"I honestly doubt it," Mamoru said, holding up the Sunstone. "They won't get it without this and the information provided in the book. Both I think will be safely locked away until we need them ourselves. I also remember a small problem that could make this whole thing a little more complicated... Endymion had the Moonstone on his person when he died, meaning it still is on his body... on the Moon."

Silence swept through the room when confronted with this problem. "So I think until we've found a way to reach the Moon and survive in the vacuum of space, this pretty much is a dead end," Mamoru finally added.

"I fear so. Until your combined magic is strong enough for long-range teleportation - even I on my own can not teleport off the planet - and creating an environmental shield, the Golden Crystal has to wait. Good thing that it right at the moment is safe," Pluto explained.

That pretty much closed discussion on that topic.

"However, I do have a different lead towards the Silver Crystal and it looks very promising and I can soon tell you more about it," Pluto said, knowing that the hunt for the Rainbow Crystals would soon start.

"You mean that crystal we need for the Moon Princess?" Usagi asked, causing Luna to facepaw and wonder, if the girl actually was enjoying to act ignorant.

Thankfully, Pluto seemed to have lots of patience. "Exactly that one. I hope to give you answers very soon. In the meantime... Mamoru, can I take the stone and the book with me? I think they are safe when stored at the gates."

No more words were exchanged and Pluto vanished as soon as she'd gotten both objects.

Ranma let out a breath he'd held. "Magic crystals, travel to the Moon, a tree that creates magic... Wouldn't have thought my life gets this crazy. I only know one thing for sure: you girls will be, just like me, in training hell for the near future."

The girls didn't look happy with that, but knew that they needed it.

* * *

_...meanwhile, in the Dark Kingdom..._

"...we therefore give you this gathered energy to reawaken you from your slumber!"

Beryl was kneeling in the chamber which was situated at the lowest point of the huge complex that was the Dark Kingdom. It was a scary place. Bare rock walls were formed like people who had been absorbed into the walls, screaming in terror at their final moments, the light in the place was dim and murky, a small of rotting flesh was in the air and the big cave was dominated by something that looked like a a huge, transparent container that was held in place by rocks that looked like teeth. Even more disturbing, several things swimming in the fluid in the container looked like organs while the transparent container looked like a huge, deformed heart.

Energy blasted through vein-like conduits in the walls, feeding into the huge heart.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then, the container started to contract rhythmically, like a beating heart, deep breathing filling the cave. The fluids inside the container lit up, glowing orange and bathing the cave in an unnatural light.

"Our great master Metallia has awakened!" Beryl said in awe, when seeing what happened.

Black energy pulsed through the orange liquid, forming a shadow outline of a face.** "Human energy has woken me from my long slumber..."** a creepy, hoarse and only vaguely female voice echoed through the cave.

"Master! How long have I waited to hear your voice again!" Beryl called, enthusiastic to the fact that they finally had managed what they had worked so hard for.

**"Yes...yes... Yet, the chains that were put onto me were not broken."** From the sound of it, the being that was Metallia was barely restraining her anger. **"Find the Silver Crystal in order to speed up my freedom by breaking my chains early."**

"Queen Metallia, our search has ended in failure. We were unable to locate the Silver Crystal," Beryl fearfully told the being, hoping it wouldn't result in a punishment.

**"Your search met with failure as the crystal is not whole. Foolish queen of the Moon, imprisoned your seven most powerful warriors within the Silver Crystal... Broken into seven rainbow-colored crystals it got at her death."**

"This is why we were unable to locate it?" Beryl said in surprise. This was news to her.

**"Yes... Find a way to locate your seven warriors, still locked inside the seven crystals, carried by seven unsuspecting beings. Collect all seven crystals and re-form the Silver Crystal," **Metallia commanded.

"Yes, my queen! I already have an idea!"

_**to be continued...**_

_**Next Episode:**_

_**"**__**The Hunt begins**__**"**_

**Notes:**

**Now, considering how long this chapter is, here some notes.**

**I admit I lited certain ideas from other sources. The flshback scene is from "Last Crusade" and parts of the book and the stone disc from "Fate of Atlantis". I also based the virtues on those from the "Ultima" series. The dragon scene is a parody of the one in "Gabriel Knight".**

**I know these quite a lot of nudity and borderline situations between Ranma and Ami, but what do you expect? They are not in a monastery. However, don't expect this to happen often in this story.**

**There's lots of foreshadowing in this chapter. Can you find it all?**

**There are 8 virtues, three principles and Infinity, and there are 12 people (10 Senshi + Mamoru and Ranma). Can you guess who represents what? I already assigned it (not story important but interesting) but are curious what others think.**

**I was tempted to split part off of this monster chapter, but in the end kept in intact.**


End file.
